LUANDA: Ghana avoided the ignominy of becoming the first World Cup qualifiers not to make it past the Africa Cup of Nations first round thanks to a little help from a legend’s son. Missing Michael Essien and a score of first choice players the four-time champions still managed to book their place in the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over 10-man Burkina Faso here on Tuesday. The only goal came from French-based Andre Ayew, son of one of Africa’s most decorated players, Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew, three-time Africa Footballer of the Year and a member of Marseille’s 1993 Champions League winning side. Ghana’s reward was a last eight date with hosts Angola at Luanda’s 11 November stadium on Sunday. Algeria, the Group A runners-up, face Group B winners Ivory Coast, with Burkina Faso down and out. The main news off the pitch on the 10th day of the competition came from Cabinda where Mali dispatched a letter of protest at Monday’s goalless draw between Angola and Algeria. The shared point put those two sides through from Group A at the expense of Mali, who cried foul. That attitude incensed the Mali team who wrote to organisers the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to make an official complaint. “We are lodging a vehement protest against the behaviour of the Algeria and Angola teams,” the Mali Football Federation president Boubacar Thiam wrote in the letter. “In fact the second half of the game was a total non-match, the two sides systematically refusing to play in order to maintain the score at 0-0 which was sufficient for qualification.” Thiam cited as a precedent for his protest a similar incident at the Africa Cup of Nations Youth Championships in 2001 match against Cameroon and Egypt who received no points as punishment after a scoreless draw. There was encouraging news, meanwhile, from South Africa concerning the state of health of Kodjovi Obilale, the goalkeeper injured in the deadly gun attack on the Togo team bus on January 8.