Mohamed El-Sayed looks into what the quarterfinals hold As the 25th African Cup of Nations matches enter the knock-out phase tomorrow, the showcase event takes an ever more exciting turn. Tomorrow, in the first match of the quarterfinals, leaders of Group C Guinea will play Group D runners up Senegal at the Coastal Guards Stadium. On Saturday, Nigeria -- aka the Super Eagles -- who finished on top of Group D, will clash in a highly promising game with defending champions Tunisia in Port Said. The last round of Groups C and D matches saw a plethora of surprises. Underdog Guinea dealt the defending champions Tunisia a humiliating 3-0 defeat, finishing on top of Group C. Both teams had already qualified for the quarterfinals before their last match, and chose to put most of their key players on the bench in preparation for the following, more competitive knock-out phase. Tunisia coach Roger Lemerre told reporters after the match that he thought Guinea deserved the win. "The first goal hurt us and we never recovered," he said. "We deserved the loss and we accept it. But we did what was needed -- we qualified for the quarterfinals," he added, assuring reporters that next time they would not be so slack. For his part, Guinea's head coach Patrice Neveu said, "It's no surprise we beat the Tunisians. We have played Tunisia four times before, and we won three of the games. So it's not unusual that we have beaten them again." Meanwhile, South Africa -- winners of the 1996 title and hosts of the 2010 World Cup -- packed up and left after they suffered their third humiliating loss to Zambia 1-0 in a Group C match. The former African champions left the tournament with a shabby record, failing to score a single goal. Their coach Ted Dumitru said he was disappointed with the results. "We did not perform as we had expected," he said. "We took a dynamic approach to this game but we missed four chances to score." Indeed, Bafana Bafana's dismal performance prompted South African President Thabo Mbeki to sharply rebuke the team. A fervent football fan who regularly watches the team's matches either on TV or from the stands, he accused the team of "not defending the country's honour. They did not try to ensure that our country becomes a winning nation. We cannot be a losing nation in the way that Bafana Bafana lost in Egypt." South Africa has also failed to qualify for the World Cup finals due to be held in June in Germany. In Group D, Nigeria's Obafemi Martins scored two goals, and secured both his team's 2-1 victory over Senegal and the top group position. Meanwhile, Ghana dramatically crashed out of the tournament as they were edged 2-1 by Zimbabwe. Senegal's defeat at the hands of Nigeria on Tuesday night left Zimbabwe, Ghana and Senegal tied on three points in the group, but Senegal's goal average decided their qualification. Ghana, aka the Black Stars, is the third World Cup 2006 qualifier to drop out of the preliminary stage of the tournament, following Angola and Togo.
