The lucky last quarterfinalist

Yesterday Group D in the Africa Cup of Nations was decided: with Ivory Coast beating Cameroun 1-0, they won the group. But in the other match Guinea and Mali tied 1-1. This was the third 1-1 tie for each of them, and meant a draw would decide the quarterfinalist.
Guinea won, and will be excited to face Ghana in their next match, where Ghana will undoubtedly be the great favourite.
This must leave a bitter taste in Mali's participation, and one has to wonder whether there could not have been another better way of deciding this..?
Everyone knew that the teams were head to head when the matches ended yesterday. So why could they not have played extra time? Or perhaps gone directly to a penalty contest? One can argue that these are as much lotteries, but are they not better than a simple draw?
Guinea cannot deny they are the luckiest of all teams in the Africa Cup of Nations, no matter who wins!

A goal to die for!

Yesterday I watched Ghana-Guinea in the last group matches of the African Cup of Nations. Ghana went ahead on a goal to die for: Emmanuel Badu, the super talented 21 year old of Udinese, scored a stunning goal to put Ghana ahead! 23 meter from goal he gave the ball a tip to lift it before hammering it in mid-air. It was a goal that reminded me of Eder against the USSR in 1982, and I was delighted for Ghana.
The match ended 1-1, which was enough for Ghana to qualify as group leaders. It was surely a pity for Guinea who put pressure on the Black Stars and have been a great team to watch. Ghana has not been overly exciting to watch so far besides the goals. But that is also what makes them favourites: Ghana has experience and know that to win a big tournament, you need to pace yourself. Surely Ghana will have to lift their style for the next match against Tunisia, but they also know that very well.
The quarterfinals of a very exciting tournament are as follows:

• Zambia-Sudan
• Ghana-Tunisia
• Gabon-Mali
• Cote d'Ivoire-Equatorial Guinea