Nyandoro shines again!

Zimbabwe missed out on a place in the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations after their third goal was disallowed for offside in a thrilling 2-1 win over Ghana in Egypt. Veteran captain Peter Ndlovu and Portsmouth's Benjani Mwaruwai spear-headed the Zimbabwean attack which terrorised the Ghanaian half intermittently. With the Black Stars defence under pressure, Zimbabwe were put 1-0 ahead by a 59th minute goal by Ghana defender Issah Ahmed.

The Ghanaian woes were compounded in the 69th minute when Benjani ran on to a loose ball on the edge of the area and calmly slots the ball into the net to put Zimbabwe 2-0 up.

With captain Stephen Appiah half-fit and and Laryea Kingston suspended, the Ghanaian midfield for most of the match looked non-existent as Zimbabwe worked hard to earn their first win of the competition.

Ghana's first serous attack on the Zimbabwe goal was scuppered by captain Stephen Appiah who was in the right place to latch on to a bouncing ball in the area - but he chose to blast his first-time shot and could not keep it down.

Zimbabwe had the chance to go 1-0 up in the 37th minute with Sammy Adjei pulling an acrobatic save to keep out Zvenyika Makonese's powerfully-struck free-kick which was heading for the top corner.

Moments later, Peter Ndlovu whipped in a brilliant cross but Benjani wasted another golden opportunity to put Zimbabwe ahead.

Before half-time Ghana were barely hanging on and the same pattern continued after the restart with the Ghana defence looking out of their depth for long spells.

With the game in injury time, Zimbabwe had cause to hope for a miraculous quarter-final berth but Benjani's goal was flagged offside by the linesman.

Ghana eventually found the back of the net though Baba Adamu's spectacular strike but with only seconds to go before the referee's final whistle, it was nothing more than a consolation for the Black Stars.