Benin and Mozambique kept up their unwanted record of never having won a match at the African Nations Cup finals, drawing their opening Group C game 2-2 in Benguela on Tuesday night.
The points were shared to put both sides behind Egypt in the standings, but ahead of Nigeria, who had lost the opening game of the day's double-header 3-1 to the defending champions Egypt.
Benin had only scored twice in the African Nations Cup finals before but were two goals up after just 20 minutes.
The first goal came after Razak Omotoyossi had been upended by the podgy, and ponderous, Mozambique goalkeeper Kapagno. Mouri Ogunbiyi missed the resultant spill of the ball, blasting wildly over the top of the goal, but while it could be argued the referee had played advantage, and that Benin squandered the chance, Khaled Abdelrahmane of Sudan pointed to the spot and Omotoyossi thrashed home the 14th-minute spot kick.
Six minutes later, Mozambique's defence was all a panic as Benin continued to press with pace. Amid all the jostling in the penalty area, Dario Khan contrived to clear the ball, but served only to steer into his own net. The look of despair on his face was replaced soon after by a broad smile and thump of the chest from his defensive partner Miro, who quickly had the Mambas back in the game.
A floated ball into Benin's penalty area in the 29th minute was poorly dealt with by their goalkeeper, Yoann Djidonou, and allowed Miro to forcefully head home from around the penalty area spot.
Djidonou was caught out 10 minutes after half-time by a combination of quick thinking from the Mozambicans and help from a ball boy on the side of the field.
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The Benin goalkeeper came out of his area to clear the ball away into touch but Mozambique quickly restarted play with Genito taking the throw in to Dominquez, who steered the ball square to Goncalves Fumo, who had plenty of time to set his sights on goal and score as Djidonou was scrambling back into position.
Quick restarts are a feature of the modern game and the initiative of the Mozambicans must be applauded, but for Benin it will go down as a horror error that ultimately cost them the match—and a first ever Nations Cup win.
Mozambique have now drawn two and lost eight of their 20 previous appearances at a Nations Cup tournament and can hardly be hopeful of breaking their duck with games to come against Nigeria and Egypt. Indeed, the same can be said for Benin, but at least they have a first-ever point.
