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Burkina Faso destroy Ethiopian hopes
Reuters; January 25, 2013 Editor’s Note – Ethiopian hopes for a better performance at the AFCON 2013 were dashed on Friday when Burkina Faso pumped four shots into the Ethiopian net. The early exit of Ethiopian captain Adane Girma along with the previous loss of goalkeeper Jemal to a serious foul cost Ethiopia dearly, even though the Burkinabe team was reduced to 10 men. The remarkable performance Ethiopia displayed during the opening match against defending champs Zambia evaported into thin air, with strikers squandering golden chances for goal scoring. But this shouldn’t be a cause for disappointment for Ethiopians. Enough lessons have been learned at this marvelous tournament, and the point is to capitalize on them for an impressive comeback. NELSPRUIT, South Africa, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Burkina Faso, reduced to 10 men for the last half hour, ended a run of 17 matches and 15 years without an African Nations Cup finals win by beating Ethiopia 4-0 to go top of Group C on Friday. The unfancied west Africans won with two stunning left-foot strikes from Alain Traore and goals from Djakaridja Kone and Jonathan Pitroipa. They took all three points despite having goalkeeper Abdoulaye Soulama sent off for a careless handball outside his penalty area after an hour. Burkina Faso have four points from two games, ahead of holders Zambia and Nigeria, who both have two following their earlier 1-1 draw. Ethiopia are bottom with one. Traore opened the scoring after 34 minutes and hit an unstoppable second 16 minutes from time. Kone slid the ball in after a good move on 79 minutes and Pitroipa struck in stoppage time as Burkina Faso won a finals match for the first time since 1998 when they hosted the event. The game was disrupted briefly late on when a man ran on to the pitch in his underpants before being intercepted by officials and bundled away. (Reporting by Mike Collett, editing by Justin Palmer)
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