Equatorial Guinea Wins But Highly Controversial // Victoire De La Guinée Equatoriale Mais Très Controversée

• Tunisia were leading until the dying seconds of the Afcon quarter-final, when the official made a highly controversial decision which sparked fighting on the pitch

  Tunisia boss Georges Leekens has accused the referee of “forcing” his side’s controversial defeat toEquatorial Guinea on Saturday.

  Ahmed Akaichi had put Tunisia into the lead in the 70th minute of their Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final but the game exploded in stoppage-time when Mauritian referee Seechurn Rajindraparsad inexplicably gave a penalty to the host nation.

  Hamza Mathlouthi appeared to barely touch Ivan Bolado in the penalty area in the dying seconds of the game and yet the referee bizarrely awarded a spot kick to Equatorial Guinea when the player dived to the ground.

  Former Real Madrid player Javier Balboa converted from the spot before scoring an admittedly sublime free kick in extra-time, although there were also doubts about whether the whistle should have been blown against Tunisia for the set piece too.

  “In my 15 years as a player and 30 as coach I’ve never seen anything like it,” Leekens told reporters.

  “Today’s result was forced. The referee made a huge error and we did not deserve that.”

  Leekens’ counterpart Esteban Becker, however, refused to be drawn on the legitimate about how the referee could have fallen for such an obvious dive, which tainted what was essentially a fairytale win for the stand-in host nation.

  “Refereeing decisions are a normal part of football,” he said.

  Equatorial Guinea will now face either Ghana or Guinea in the last four of Afcon 2015Today’s Matches

FRENCH VERSION

unisie menaient jusqu’aux secondes mourants de Afcon quartde finale, lorsque le fonctionnaire a pris une décision trèscontroversée qui a suscité de combat sur le terrain