Cameroon defender Bikey who suffered a now-famous brain snap and was sent off for pushing a medico will miss the African Cup of Nations final.

The BBC speculated today Bikey's motivation for the moment of madness was unhappiness at how quickly his captain Rigobert Song was being loaded onto a stretcher.

In coaching circles Henri Michel's time at Morocco is, as expected, over, after he was given his marching orders yesterday.

While nothing has been officially declared on the future of Nigeria coach Berti Vogts the quality of applicants might have him out the door, with fellow German national Lothar Matthaus throwing his hat in the ring.

We look at how the four latest teams to depart the Africa Cup of Nations performed and their prospects of heading to Angola 2010 and the World Cup in South Africa around six months later.

Nigeria (lost 2-1 to Ghana)

Manager Berti Vogts has been the most under-fire boss of any at this Cup of Nations and is the key to Nigeria’s next step.

Sunday Oliseh is already putting pressure on for the job according to the BBC, while Nigeria’s ruthless press were highly critical of German Vogts both during and after the tournament.

So much so that his dark past as manager of Scotland rated a frequent mention as the Super Eagle scribes bemoaned his alleged destruction of a talented line-up.

Opening the tournament with two scoreless games meant Nigeria never really had the right combination up front.

After scraping past Benin they still lacked the cutting edge up forward after John Mensah was sent off for Ghana and Nigeria held the man advantage.

Whether a new manager decides to discard the veteran names in the team could shape Nigeria’s future.

World Cup qualification prospects:

Nigeria should stroll through to the second group stage of qualifying as it is paired with South Africa in group 4.

It means the Super Eagles only need to beat Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone to ensure progression to the next stage of qualifying.

However the group should not be taken lightly – the immediate step up in difficulty in the four-team, only-top qualifies second stage will pit Nigeria against the big guns.

With a team unity rebuilt, Nigeria easily has the talent to qualify for the World Cup, but leadership and a clear strategy is needed at the top.

Guinea (lost 5-0 to Ivory Coast)

Guinea’s embarrassing exit from the Cup of Nations will overshadow its fighting performance against Ghana and win over Morocco.

Pascal Feindouno is essential to any hope Guinea has of scoring goals and the rest of the team showed no indication that the skipper is anything other than a once-in-a-generation player.

While Ivory Coast was expected to win comfortably, the worst result for Guinea was arguably the draw with Namibia.

World Cup qualification prospects:

If anything because of the momentum it will give Namibia ahead of playing the Guineans again in World Cup and African Nations qualifying for 2010.

Guinea is pitted against Zimbabwe, Namibia and Kenya in a group looking destined for evenness.

As only eight of the 11 best second-placed teams go through, Guinea may well need to win the group to see the next group stage.

Guinea starts at home to Zimbabwe and is away to Kenya a week later.

Make it through this group and Guinea will do well to finish in the top three of the next stage of qualifying and go to Angola in 2010.

Don’t consider them any chance to make it to South Africa.

Angola (lost 2-1 to Egypt)

Angola was the statistical surprise packet of the tournament but will still feel unlucky to have gone home at the quarter-final stage.

The Palancas Negras had never won a game in Cup of Nations competition or made the knock-out stages, so in many ways this was a tournament of achievement.

But the team on the park has every right to leave disappointed and feeling it could have gone further.

Manucho was the stand-out for Angola, with him in this form at the 2006 World Cup Angola could well have made it out of their group.

Now his high-profile move to Manchester United (via Panathinaikos initially) could be the development he needs to become world class.

World Cup qualification prospects:

Angola is automatically qualified to host the 2010 Cup of Nations as host, but unlike Egypt in 2006 will want a World Cup to look forward too as well.

Getting there should not prove too difficult for Angola provided its organised defence sees off Uganda, Niger and Benin in the first group stage.

How close it goes to the elusive top spot (of four) at the next stage of qualifying to get a spot in South Africa depends largely on how much improvement is left in Manucho.

The better he gets, the more attention he will command to free up the likes of Flavio and Ze Kalanga – the players that along with Akwa got Angola to Germany 2006 – in order to provide multiple goal-scoring threats.

Tunisia (lost 3-2 to Cameroon)

The writing was on the wall for Tunisia after it scraped qualification for Ghana after losing to Sudan.

Improve the backline or face more embarrassment and frustration with the leaking of goals.

Sure enough, the Tunisians could not clamp down on Senegal, let in a soft consolation against South Africa and blew all the momentum it took into extra-time as Cameroon scored against the run of play.

Roger Lemerre has spent what is considered a lifetime at one African team (six years) with Tunisia, and the Frenchman may have reached the end of his tether.

But while speculation over his future remains dormant, how he rebuilds his backline with or without Radhi Jaidi will be the key to the Carthage Eagles’ future.

World Cup qualification prospects:

Tunisia’s fantastic record of qualifying for World Cups may at last be in jeopardy as the stakes are raised for South Africa 2010.

Burkina Faso, Burundi and Seychelles will not provide any stern opposition in the first group stage, but the second group stage will have the Tunisians scrambling.

Sort the groups geographically and the Tunisians will likely be facing familiar rivals Morocco and Algeria in order to qualify.

But if the groups are drawn randomly then a poor record away from home against the bigger nations of central Africa may prove Tunisia’s downfall.

Defeated Nigeria manager Berti Vogts kept his cards close to his chest when facing the media after his side’s 2-1 defeat to Ghana.

 

Vogts presided over a Super Eagles team that failed to score in its opening two matches and was already feeling the pressure of an expectant Nigeria contingent.

 

But after his side failed to hold a 1-0 lead against Ghana and could not find a winner against 10-men the German was reserved.

 

“We made mistakes and you can’t do that in international football,” Vogts said.

 

“All I can do is offer my congratulations to Ghana.”

 

Ghana’s winning goal came after Obinna Nwaneri was beaten on the right flank by Haminu Draman.

 

Nwaneri stood off Draman and did not make an attempt for the ball until the Ghana substitute moved first.

 

“In the match against Ivory Coast we had problems on the right side as well,” Vogts said.

 

“Obinna is a very experienced player.

 

“He is there for the tussle but got beaten in a one-on-one situation. That is all.”

 

Nigeria striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni opened the scoring for the Super Eagles with a first-half penalty.

 

“Today we showed character,” he said.

 

“I think the team is getting better and we can look forward to the journey of qualifying for the World Cup.”

Ghana has overcome the sending-off of captain John Mensah to defeat Nigeria 2-1 and book a place in the African Cup of Nations semi-finals.

The Black Stars came back from a goal down as well as a man down to see off its arch rival.

A goal with eight minutes remaining from Junior Agogo gave Ghana victory after the scores were level 1-1 at half time.

Ghana played the last half-hour of the match with 10 men after captain Mensah was issued a straight red card by referee Benouza Mohamed for a challenge on Peter Odemwingie as the last man.

But Ghana had already been outplaying Nigeria before Mensah’s dismissal and after weathering a period of pressure, pressed on to find a winner.

Substitute Haminu Draman beat Obinna Nwaneri on the left flank in a one-on-one to put Sulley Ali Muntari into space on the edge of the area.

Muntari then fired a cross through the six-yard box to an unmarked Agogo at the back post for a tap-in finish.

Nigeria had opened the scoring against the run of play in the first half when Eric Addo bought down Ikechukwu Uche to concede a penalty.

Yakubu Aiyegbeni scored low to the left to give Nigeria a 35th minute lead.

But a Michael Essien header on the stroke of half-time sent Ghana in on level terms. Nigeria’s best chance to re-take the lead in the second half came from the free kick conceded by Mensah’s sending-off.

Goalkeeper Richard Kingson acrobatically saved from Taiwo Taye to keep the scores 1-1.

Despite having a man advantage, Nigeria was unable to make it count after falling behind.

The Super Eagles had half-chances in the final stages but failed to force Kingson into a save.

Ghana now progresses to the semi-final while Nigeria is out.

Nigeria is through to the quarter-final of the African Cup of Nations after a 2-0 win over Benin in Sekondi tonight.

But the Super Eagles needed a favour from Ivory Coast to progress and the Elephants obliged beating Mali 3-0 in Accra.

Goals from John Obi Mikel and Aiyegbeni Yakubu in the second half opened Nigeria’s account at the tournament after going scoreless in the first two games.

While just a draw would have seen Mali through to the next stage, Didier Drogba’s early strike for the Ivory Coast gave his side an advantage it would not relinquish.

Drogba’s goal celebration after a cool finish in the ninth minute left the crowd in no doubt that the two had not agreed to play out a draw.

Mali’s avenue to goal was Frederic Kanoute, but its midfield peppered the Ivorian backline with harmless long-balls without ever threatening to score.

Kanoute was substituted at half time, coach Jean Jodar saying after the match his striker was injured.

In the second half centre-back Marc Zoro headed in a corner from Abdul Keita on 54 minutes to seal the win for the Ivory Coast.

Then in the 68th minute the game was made safe for the Elephants when Boubacar Sanogo finished from close range following up a parried shot from Yaya Toure.

With Kolo Toure injured centre-back pairing Marc Zoro and Didier Zokora dominated for Ivory Coast, while full-backs Emmanuel Eboue and Siaka Tiene barely raised a jog.

Ivory Coast will start hot favourite to defeat Guinea in its next match, while Nigeria meets host Ghana in the quarter-final.

Nigeria avoided elimination at the hands of Mali but its destiny is out of its control after a 0-0 draw in Sekondi tonight.

In a game that played out like a typical scoreless match, both sides were limited to half-chances save a brief spell in the late stages.

If Ivory Coast beats Mali in its final group game, Nigeria can still progress to the knockout stage of the tournament with a 2-0 win or better.

But having not scored in two games the writing is on the wall for the Super Eagles.

In the 79th minute the Nigerians thought they had finally broken the duck when Yakubu Aiyegbeni turned in a scrap from close range.

But the offisde flag was raised to deny Nigeria and Mali took the disallowed goal as a warning.

With a left-footed shot from the edge of the penalty area in the 82nd minute Seydou Keita had Austine Ejide beaten all ends up but hit the crossbar.

John Obi Mikel then flashed a shot of his own across the face of the Mali goal just a minute later.

In the last minute of stoppage time Fredi Kanoute scuffed a shot on the turn, typical of the night of half-chances the strikers were afforded.

Kanu remained on the bench for the full game for Nigeria with Ikechukwu Uche the preferred substition.

But no combinations are working for Nigeria at the minute, with fans and press alike believing the Super Eagles to be already eliminated from the tournament.

It was far from squirrel noise as Benin started night six of the African Cup of Nations with the loudest national anthem.

Almost like a trained choir, the strong Benin collection set themselves a standard that it couldn't quite match for the full 90 minutes of its 4-1 loss to the Ivory Coast.

Although its fans were split across three distinguishable groups, the Ivorians had a stronger and more consistent way of cheering on its team.

While one group of fans double-clicked like a heart beat, a thunder of drums came in from underneath.

With every attacking chance the heart-beat got faster, pounding excitedly every time the Elephants won a set piece.

While the Ivorian heartbeat continued deep into the second half, the squirrels went into hibernation.

They emerged upon the scoring of the game's only goal, but had been relatively quiet for the majority of the second half.

The Mali fans also had a similar approach to fan support as the Ivorians, but adopted a more driven beat.

Malian drums propelled its team forward, generating momentum rather than simply keeping a steady beat.

Nigeria on the other hand was far more instrumental.

Not just the air horns and one-tone trumpets coming from the Nigerian fans, but a full orchestra of harmonic noises urging on the Super Eagles.

Teo Pellizzeri, Takoradi-Sekodni Stadium