Toure brothers rescue Ivory Coast

Posted Monday, October 10, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

Brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure of Manchester City scored Sunday as Ivory Coast snatched a 2-1 home win over Burundi to finish with the only perfect record in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying competition.

Centre-back Kolo Toure put the 'Elephants' ahead on 70 minutes at Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Ivorian commercial capital Abidjan only for Dugary Ndabashinze to level for the 'Swallows' soon after.

It was left to former Barcelona midfield 'enforcer' Yaya Toure to earn 1992 Cup of Nations champions Ivory Coast a sixth victory from six Group H outings with a goal three minutes into stoppage time.

Rwanda, whose Ghana-born coach Sellas Tettah quit last month after securing just one win from five qualifiers, climbed two places to second on the final table with a surprise 1-0 away win over Benin in Porto Novo courtesy of a sixth-minute Mere Kagere goal.

Group E table-toppers Senegal could not quite match the maximum 18-point haul of Ivory Coast, finishing with 16 after scoring a couple of early goals to triumph 2-0 in Mauritius and inflict a humiliating sixth loss on the trot for the Indian Ocean islanders.

Dame N'Doye scored from a free kick on nine minutes and after Mauritian Stephane Badul was red-carded for fouling the Denmark-based striker, Papiss Cisse of German club Freiburg added a second goal midway through the opening half.

The qualifying competition for the finals in Gabon and Equatorial Gabon between January 21 and February 12 ends late Sunday when Group D leaders Morocco host Tanzania and Algeria have home advantage over second-place Central African Republic.

Apart from the co-hosts, Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia and Zambia have secured 2012 Cup of Nations slots and Morocco and Sudan are likely to complete the line-up.