Prince Oniangue scored a second-half goal as Congo-Brazzaville sprung a surprise with a 1-0 success over more fancied Gabon in their Group A match at the African Nations Cup finals in Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday.
The result moved Claude LeRoy's side to the top of the pool with four points from their two games, ahead of Gabon (three points), Equatorial Guinea (two) and Burkina Faso (one).
They now need just a draw in their final game against the Burkinabe on Sunday, while Gabon must beat Guinea at the same time to make sure of their passage into the quarter-finals.
For Gabon it was a well-read story - a lack of consistency in performance after their excellent opening win against Burkina Faso.
They were well off the quality they showed in that game. Though they were still superior to Congo on the night, they were wasteful in front of goal and one moment of madness in their defence cost them dearly.
They came close to taking the lead on four minutes when a superb build-up saw striker Frederic Bulot crash the ball goalwards, but Congo keeper Christoffer Mafoumbi produced a superb save to tip the ball over the crossbar.
Malick Evouma then missed a superb chance when he scuffed his shot wide of goal when it seemed easier to score, while star man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw his swerving free-kick well saved by Mafoumbi on the stroke of halftime.
After soaking up all that pressure, Congo found their precious goal three minutes into the second period and it came after some calamitous defending from Gabon.
A corner was swung into the box and with two Gabonese defenders looking to clear the ball, a weak header found its way to Oniangue, who hooked the ball into the back of the net.
Gabon piled on the pressure after that and should have equalised when Bulot found himself with an open net to aim at after the ball broke to him in the box, but he somehow managed to miss the target.
Congo coach LeRoy has appeared in seven previous Nations Cup finals and only once had he failed to make the quarter-finals - in 2013 with DR Congo.
His side have given him a great chance of getting that record back on track in Equatorial Guinea.
