KUMASI: Manchester-United new recruit Manucho and surprise-package Angola face five-time defending champions Egypt today in an intriguing African Nations Cup quarter-final.
Angola have never progressed so far in the biennial competition, the Black Antelopes defying the odds to make it past the opening round at the fifth attempt.
A 1-1 draw against Group D joint leaders Tunisia in Tamale last Thursday was enough to see them through as runners-up after an identical scoreline in their tie with South Africa and an emphatic 3-1 win over Senegal.
With a fine showing by three-goal hero Manucho, the striker who has been lent out by United to Panathinaikos until the end of the season, Angola are proving they fully deserved their place at the 2006 World Cup.
The 24-year-old Angolan star has signed a three year deal with United. He said: After the Nations Cup I will return to Luanda and then head to Athens.
I am looking forward to playing in Greece before hopefully being a success at Old Trafford.
The man who has masterminded this rise through the footballing ranks is coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves and he s not ready to let the multiple titleholders Egypt force him home.
He said: We intend to extend our run. We have new challenges and we want to go as far as we can in this test. We are ready for the fourth game but we are also thinking about the fifth. We don t want to stop here, we want to get to the semi-finals.
Egypt kept the wheels on their title defense bid with a 1-1 draw with Zambia last Wednesday following their opening round 4-2 success over Cameroon and 2-0 defeat of Sudan.
That left them as Group C leaders after Amr Zaky s goal saving their blushes against the Zambians.
Egypt turned up in Ghana curiously given their status as champions playing the role of outsiders to a certain extent after making heavy weather of qualifying.
They only scraped in on the final day in an accessible group comprising Mauritania, Burundi and Botswana.
But they have shown their class here and are still in with a shout of adding to their collection of trophies won in 1957, 1959, 1986, 1998 and 2006.
Ahmed Fathi, the Al Ahly defender, said: We re confident we can play well in the next game and progress to the semi-finals.
And coach Hassan Shehata insisted: We came here to win. Our responsibility is greater than the other teams here in Ghana because we are the defending champions. We re here to retain our title.
