Nigeria, Egypt in semis

LUBANGO, Angola (AP):

Two-time champion Nigeria beat Zambia 5-4 on penalties to advance to the semi-finals at the African Cup of Nations, where they will meet Ghana.

Goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama scored the decisive penalty after Thomas Nyirenda had missed for Zambia.

Enyeama dived to his right to stop Nyirenda's penalty after Sikombe Chivhuta and Christopher Katongo and Emmanuel Mayuka had all scored for Zambia.

The two teams failed to score in either regulation or extra time yesterday, forcing the game to be decided by a penalty shoot-out.

Obefemi Martins, Victor Nsofor, Peter Odemwingie and John Obi Mikel all scored for Nigeria.

Earlier yesterday, Egypt beat Cameroon 3-1, also after extra time, to set up a semi-final meeting against Cameroon.

Ahmed Hassan scored twice for the Egyptians. Making an African-record 170th international appear-ance, Hassan inadvertently gave Cameroon a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute by heading in a corner from Achille Emana at the near post.

Ten minutes later, Hassan equalised with a long-range effort that bounced in front of goalkeeper Carlos Kameni and went into the net.

Substitute Mohamed Gedo gave Egypt the lead in the second minute of extra time, beating Kameni after a poor back pass from Cameroon defender Geremi Njitap.

Happy

Hassan scored two minutes later from a long-range free kick that didn't appear to cross the goal line after Kameni had punched the ball on to the underside of the crossbar.

"I'm very happy because we won today," Hassan said. "We played a very good match and I'm thrilled to score two goals and also with the record of 170 appearances."

Egypt, the two-time defending champions who are unbeaten in their last 17 African Cup games, will play Algeria on Thursday in a repeat of the World Cup qualifier in November at Cairo in which Egyptian fans pelted a bus carrying Algerian players with missiles. Three Algerian players were hurt.