By Adam Burrows, Boston.com Correspondent
LIBREVILLE, Gabon -- After 12 days, AFCON 2012 is down to an elite, if unusual, eight, as the final round of the group stage offered up just one notable surprise.
Sudan won the seventh Africa Cup of Nations in 1970 as host, qualified in 1976, then suffered through a 32-year exile before its next trip, a disastrous affair in Ghana in which the Desert Hawks lost all three games and failed to register a goal.
Few were expecting anything different in Malabo, where Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso were favored in Group B, Angola the outside pick.
But after losing by the respectable margin of 1-0 to Ivory Coast, Sudan drew Angola 2-2 to pick up its first point in 35 years.
Heading into the third match, Sudan still trailed Angola by three points and by two goals on differential and total goals, the key tiebreakers.
But by the end of the night, Sudan had made up the deficit to advance to the quarterfinals, a remarkable achievement for an entirely local team and its Sudanese coach, Mohamed “Mazda” Abdallah.
While Angola lost 2-0 to the Elephants of Ivory Coast, who didn’t surrender a goal through the group stage, 23-year-old Sudan striker Mudather El Tahir pounced on a pair of Burkina Faso defensive errors and finished convincingly on each to produce a 2-1 win and put Sudan through.
Mudather plays for Omdurman-based Al-Hilal, the dominant power in the Sudanese domestic league and a team that routinely plays deep into the African Champions League. Al-Hilal and its derby-mate Al Merreikh supply the entire national starting eleven, most of whom are under age 25 and getting a first opportunity to showcase their skills. Despite deep pockets and multi-million dollar budgets, it may be difficult for the Big Two of Sudanese soccer to hold on the likes of Mudather and standout 24-year-old Al-Hilal midfielder Mohammed Ahmed “Bisha” Bashir.
Host Gabon continues to play some of the most attractive soccer in the tournament, getting past second place Tunisia 1-0 in Franceville to finish atop Group C with maximal points.
Once again, 34-year-old veteran Daniel Cousin and 22-year-old sensation Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang connected for the score, with Aubameyang scoring his third goal of the tournament off a lovely Cousin assist.
A win by Guinea over Ghana would have put Michel Dusseyer’s team through in Group D, but despite a spectacular goal by 21-year-old Sochaux forward Abdoul (Razzini) Camara, the Syli National could manage only a 1-1 draw against the tournament favorites.
In the other Group D match, an early second-half Botswana goal off a counter-attack finally awakened Mali, as moribund in the first half as it had been against Ghana in its previous game.
