TANGIERS — Gabon will compete at the Olympic Games football tournament for the first time next year in London after a dramatic 1-0 win over Senegal on Tuesday in a Caf Under-23 championship semi-final.
The winner came in the final minute of extra time in the Moroccan city of Tangiers after a drab match and had a strong French flavour with Andre Biyogho Poko of Bordeaux heading home a corner from Alexander Ndoumbou of Orleans.
Rank outsiders when the first tournament kicked off 10 days ago, the Baby Panthers bounced back after a loss to Egypt by holding South Africa and defeating Ivory Coast to finish Group B runners-up.
Senegal started as slight favourites to reach the final having beaten Nigeria and Morocco to top Group A, but were lucky not to fall behind early in the first half when the Gabonese had a goal mysteriously disallowed.
Repeated big-screen replays did not show anything untoward as a free-kick from 16-year-old Muller Dinda — the youngest footballer at the tournament — was headed on to a post and Romuald Ntsitsigui poked the rebound into the net.
Senegal squandered a great chance when unmarked Kara Mbodj blazed over in second-half stoppage time and grounded 17-year-old Gabon goalkeeper Nick Moundounga used his feet to foil Dame Diop in extra time.
The Senegalese did get the ball in the net after 112 minutes, but the goal was ruled offside although replays suggested the guilty player was not interfering with play.
Caf president Issa Hayatou was among the tiny crowd inside the 45 000-seat Tangiers Stadium and there was little goalmouth excitement with the teams concentrating more on not losing than winning.
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Morocco hosted Egypt yesterday in the other semi-final in Marrakech with another place at the London Olympics up for grabs while the losers face Senegal Saturday for third place and a third ticket to the Games.
Whichever country loses the play-off gets yet another chance to qualify for the quadrennial multi-sport showcase in a play-off next April against an Asian nation.
Africa has a proud record in recent Olympic tournaments with Nigeria striking gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games, Cameroon repeating the feat four years later in Sydney and Nigeria finishing runners-up at the 2008 Beijing Games.
