LUANDA: Day six of the Africa Cup of Nations had Ivory Coast beaming, Mali fuming, and Algeria left out in the cold by their national media and accused of gamesmanship by organisers.

Friday’s lone action came from Cabinda where competition favourites Ivory Coast became the first of the 15 Nations Cup teams to reach the quarter-finals. They did it the hard way, defeating a severely depleted Ghana 3-1 with 10 men.

The Elephants were down a player on 56 minutes when Emmanuel Eboue was red-carded for a vicious tackle from behind on Opoku Agyemang. By then Lille forward Kouassi ‘Gervinho’ had already put them in front.

Siaka Tiene scored direct from a free-kick after 67 minutes and Didier Drogba completed the victory in the final minute. Ghana got a stoppage-time consolation goal via an Asamoah Gyan penalty.

Down in Luanda what should have been a routine training session degenerated into high drama, farce and recrimination. Everything began normally at the Escoqueirus Stadium when Algeria turned up to prepare for Monday’s must-win clash with Angola.

But reporters were astonished when, a quarter of an hour later, the Mali team bus rounded a corner and parked outside the stadium. Utter confusion then reigned as first Mali players were made to wait in the coach for over half an hour. Then they were told they could enter the ground, only to find the doors locked. Mali coach Stephen Keshi tried to talk their way in at the main gate, but to no avail.

After over an hour, and as dusk fell, Keshi led his charges away, furious at having missed a vital chance to prepare for their last group match against Malawi in Cabinda on Monday.

In a separate subplot, the Algeria team was cold shouldered by their local press who were angry at being refused entry to watch the training session. The Desert Foxes’ press pack formed a human wall and turned their backs on the players as they left the stadium. Relationships between the two sides are fraught after coach Rabah Saadane took exception to the criticism which followed his side’s 3-0 defeat to Malawi.