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After two days of rest the African Nations Championship resumed with the quarter-final between South Africa and Algeria, with the Fennecs deserving a 2-0 victory on the day.

South Africa came into this quarter-final full of confidence after winning all three of their group games, while Algeria came second in their group after a win and two draws, meaning that neither side had yet been beaten in the tournament.

Algeria took the lead in Khartoum when the South African goalkeeper fouled Algerian striker Djallit Moustafa in the box for a penalty. Maiza Adel scored from the spot, while Hocine Metref finished well from Hadj Aissa's pass to make it 2-0.

The Fennecs dominated from late in the first half, despite South Africa starting off very well and using their pace and quick passing to get Algeria off balance and test them with early attacking chances.

Ammabinneplaas will be disappointed to have gone out at the quarter-final stage after such an impressive start to the tournament, but they surprised many pundits by doing so well despite consisting of players from the lower leagues of South African football and junior levels of PSL teams.

The result means that Algeria progress to the semi-final stage to face the winner of the match between DR Congo and Tunisia in tomorrow's CHAN 2011 action.

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Labels: Africa, Algeria, Ammabinneplaas, defeat, Fennecs, Goalcom, progress, SemiFinals, South

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Scotland's Sean Lamont was one of his team's few positives in their Six Nations defeat by Wales. Photograph: David Moir/REUTERS

Andy Robinson's final words to his players before the kick-off were to go out and really play, but the Scotland coach saw them press rewind instead and could only watch in table-thumping frustration as his team showed a chronic inability to take the game to opponents who had gone more than 10 months without a victory.

Robinson wanted Scotland to show that they were able to manage expectation but they did not even manage to score a try despite enjoying the majority of possession and making almost twice as many passes as Wales. Even when they had a two-man advantage for seven minutes in the first-half when Bradley Davies and Lee Byrne were in the sin-bin, the home side lacked the poise and wit to fashion an opening. The year before, Wales had won the game with two tries when Scotland had players in the sin-bin.

The Scotland captain, Alastair Kellock, afterwards lamented that it took disappointment for Scotland to put in a performance, the refuge of the underdog. Three tries in Paris on the opening weekend, together with victory over South Africa in November and a 2-0 series win in Argentina the previous summer had given Robinson hope that the days of one-off performances were over, but Saturday showed that progress is still followed by a backward step.

Scotland offered little behind beyond the thrusts of Sean Lamont and the Scarlet only found himself on the field after Hugo Southwell injured himself after taking out Byrne in the air at the end of the opening quarter. Dan Parks, so influential last season, was one-dimensional, the midfield dithered and fumbled and, without the ill Richie Gray, the forwards lacked thrust, bullied at the breakdown.

"We were poor and that is being polite," said Lamont. "I would use stronger words than that. We need to sit down and have some serious alone time, pointing fingers. It is time to shut doors, perhaps not even have the coaches there. We have to question how much we want this and I think a few boys need to be worried and start looking over their shoulders. It was criminal that we did not convert when they were down to 13 men and we should not have lost like we did. We were not good enough."

Lamont's angst was compounded by the fact that they lost to a Wales team that is far from vintage. The return of James Hook to fly-half made an immediate difference: he was six times involved in the move that led to the opening try on seven minutes, carrying the ball in both hands, vexing defenders and waiting for an opportunity that came when he detected the Scotland prop Allan Jacobsen in front of him.

Hook stepped into space and away from the front-rower to give Shane Williams, the tormentor of the Scots, his 52nd try for Wales. Hook was blessed with what Scotland lacked, cunning and patience, but the men in red still lacked conviction in attack. Their victory was based on defence and they were content, after Williams's early try was supplemented by three Hook penalties, to let Scotland take the game to them, knowing there would be mistakes to feed off.

Wales had gone 20 internationals since they had last kept their tryline intact but here their determination in defence, where the forwards Craig Mitchell, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate and Sam Warburton all made a double-figure number of tackles, was outstanding. They were the team reacting to disappointment, not just the defeat to England the previous week, but a gradual decline since winning the grand slam in 2008.

The players had treated their coach, Warren Gatland, to frequent playings of David Bowie and Queen's Under Pressure in the team coach last week, a reference to the media scrutiny the New Zealander had come under. Disappointing results have not sapped morale but, like Scotland, their ambition is dimmed by a discomfort of expectation.

Wales's next stop is Rome and they will start as favourites against an Italian team reeling from its Twickenham torment. The Azzurri have more cause to fear themselves than Wales who have come to rely on graft rather than craft, even with Hook.

The second half was miasmic, basic mistakes wrecking fluency. The more Scotland attacked, the less likely they looked like scoring. Wales waited for their moment and secured victory when Nikki Walker's sloppy pass to Jacobsen was claimed byWarburton for Jonathan Davies to kick into the space Walker had vacated for Williams to claim his second try.

"We have gone back a couple of steps," said Robinson, who is still waiting for his first Six Nations victory in the Scottish capital.

Gatland said Wales would improve. He will not be playing Bowie's Heroes to his players just yet, nor Hunky Dory, but his relief was palpable.

Scotland: Southwell (Stade Français; S Lamont, Scarlets, 20); Walker (Ospreys), Ansbro (Northampton), De Luca (Edinburgh), Evans (Glasgow); Parks (Cardiff Blues), R Lawson (Gloucester; Blair, Edinburgh, 47); Jacobsen (Edinburgh), Ford (Edinburgh; S Lawson, Gloucester, 70), Murray (Newcastle; Low, Edinburgh, 47), Hines (Leinster), Kellock (Glasgow, capt; MacLeod, Scarlets, 75), Brown (Saracens), Barclay (Glasgow; Rennie, Edinburgh, 70), Vernon (Glasgow).

Pens Parks 2.

Wales: Byrne (Ospreys; Priestland, Scarlets, 80); Stoddart (Scarlets), Roberts (Blues), J Davies (Scarlets), Williams (Ospreys); Hook (Ospreys; S Jones, Scarlets, 70), Phillips (Ospreys; Knoyle, Scarlets, 80); James (Ospreys; Yapp, Blues, 70), Rees (Scarlets, capt; Hibbard, Ospreys, 80), Mitchell (Ospreys), B Davies (Blues), AW Jones (Ospreys; Turnbull, Scarlets, 75), Lydiate (Newport Gwent Dragons; Thomas, Ospreys, 55), Warburton (Blues), R Jones (Ospreys).

Tries Williams 2 Con Hook Pens Hook 4.

Sin-bin B Davies 24, Byrne 28.

Referee: G Clancy (Ireland) Attendance 60,259.

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Labels: backwards, defeat, Guardian, Nations, Scotland, Wales

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Warrington were counting the cost of their surprise opening-day defeat by Huddersfield, with two players sent to hospital.

Australian centre Matt King was the biggest casualty of the 28-18 defeat in the opening match of the Magic Weekend in Cardiff after being carried off on a stretcher with suspected knee-ligament damage.

"We'll wait until we get the seriousness of it," said Wolves coach Tony Smith. "Lee Briers is also going to hospital for x-rays on his neck but hopefully it's precautionary."

Warrington also lost Mike Cooper (shoulder), Simon Grix (dead leg) and Chris Bridge (hamstring), leaving Smith with no substitutes in the closing stages.

"We're not in great shape," said Smith.

The Wolves enjoyed the better start and took the lead with a fourth-minute try from debutant Australian winger Joel Monaghan but they paid the price for a series of handling errors and lapses in discipline.

"Our opponents deserved to win," added Smith. "They played a bit better than us. We were far from our best. It was very frustrating. We need to improve and we will. I've got to say there were some courageous boys out there and to fight back at the back end of the game with no subs showed what we're about as a club."

Huddersfield ended Warrington's 2010 season with victory in the play-offs and today's opening victory suggests they will once more be challenging for a trip to Old Trafford but coach Nathan Brown was far from satisfied with their performance.

"I thought we were very scrappy from an attacking point of view but from a defensive point of view for 65 or 70 minutes we were really good," he said.

"To beat Warrington in round one is always pleasing. I thought we were the better team but we're going to need to improve a lot."

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Labels: Association, count, defeat, Press, Wolves

Liverpool produced a stunning defensive display to record only their second victory in seven years at Stamford Bridge courtesy of a Raul Merieles strike midway through the second half.

The Reds were dogged and determined- they were certainly not going to let Fernando Torres steal all the limelight- Jamie Carrager made sure of that. There performance was epitomised when the striker was substituted on 69 minutes.

Moments later Merieles who is on a great run himself scored with a strike from close range giving Dalglish's men an unlikely victory.

This match was eagerly anticipated with all the focus on one man in particular. Torres started for the Blues after his £50 million English transfer record breaking move from Liverpool.

The Spaniard had perhaps burnt bridges with Liverpool fans after announcing he had moved to a bigger club but promised that he would not celebrate if he scored maybe as a way of appeasing his former fans- but they would not have to worry about it.

Chelsea made their intentions very clear from the beginning with a very attacking line up that would make any defence quiver but in a strikeforce that promised so much it produced so very little.

Didier Drogba, Torres and Nicholas Anelka failed to force Pepe Reina into any real save of note the whole game but it was largely thanks to the back three of Martin Skrtel, Carragher and Daniel Agger.

Luis Suarez who came on and scored on his debut for the Reds against Stoke City ¬had to remain content with starting on the bench as Dalglish kept faith with his winning formula which has seen Liverpool creep up the table into seventh with three consecutive wins and clean sheets to boost entering this game.

But if history was anything to go by, a Reds victory at Stamford Bridge seemed unlikely with only one win since 2004.

Inevitably the first chance fell to Torres.

Maxi Rodriguez clearly had not heard the news that he had moved to Stamford Bridge as he slipped a pass into the former team mates path.

However the finish from the World Cup winner uncharacteristically lacked composure but it was an early scare for the visitors.

If this was an indicator that chances in this match were going to come thick and fast the next twenty minutes put pay to that notion.

Liverpool were happy to contain Chelsea and counter attack when possible if Dirk Kuyt’s pass had been more accurate into Raul Meireles the away side might have created their first real opportunity.

Torres was struggling to find any joy through the middle and drifted out onto the wing where Daniel Agger unceremoniously blocked his run- much to the delight of the travelling away support- and gave away a free kick in a dangerous position.

But nothing could be made of the chance which epitomised the opening half hour.

The game was screaming out for a goal and it nearly came through Torres after Drogba threaded a lovely through ball to him- it was first time the Blues had managed to penetrate the Reds defence but Jamie Carragher was there to put an excellent block in.

Liverpool should have been ahead moments later as the game suddenly sparked into the life.

Perhaps it was fortuitous that the ball kindly fell to Steven Gerrard in the box but the captain took advantage of the good fortune and drilled a low ball across goal; Rodriguez will still be wondering how he managed to hit the bar from a few yards out with the goal gaping.

The first half was brought to a close but not before Branislav Ivanovic and Petr Cech displayed the kind of tension which was surging through the game.

A lovely cross by Martin Kelly on the right caused confusion between the pair as they went for the same ball resulting in the defender and goal keeper squaring up to each other in a heated debate.

After the interval Chelsea had a flurry of half chances as they tried to find that elusive opener. Anelka had a couple of pot shots at goal and a Ivanovic header failed to test Reina.

The visitors looked reasonably comfortable as the Blues struggled to create any clear cut opportunities. Torres’s face cut a frustrated figure as he was marshalled out of the game by Carragher who was outstanding at the back for Liverpool.

It signalled the end for Torres who was replaced by Salomon Kalou on 65 minutes.

Anelka sitting slightly deeper found some space and his twenty yard shot was fired agonisingly wide but it told the story of the match for the Blues having failed to register a shot in target in 67 minutes of play.

And inevitably they were made to pay as Liverpool took the lead on 69 minutes. Gerrard ran down the wing and put in a brilliant cross which again caused confusion in the Chelsea box and Meireles was on hand to fire home from close range grabbing his fourth goal in five games.

Torres off and a goal behind it was not an image many had envisioned before the game.

Florent Malouda nearly found a equaliser moments later but he was foiled by Reina who was forced into his first real save of the match.

Liverpool looked threatening on the counter attack and with 10 minutes to go they nearly doubled their lead.

Substitute Fabio Aurelio orchestrated some space in the Chelsea box he jinked onto right foot and fired a powerful shot at Cech but the Blues shot stopper was on hand to make the save.

A Frank Lampard strike with just a few minutes to go summed up Chelsea's day as he blazed high and wide leaving Stamford Bridge disappointed and subdued.

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Labels: Blues, Chelsea, Crucial, Debut, defeat, Disappointing, Fernando, Goalcom, Hands, Liverpool, Makes, Meireles, strike, Torres