It hasn’t been easy finding venues to watch some of these Africa Cup matches in, even in a melting pot like London. I fancied watching the Cameroon match yesterday and having drawn a blank on Cameroon bars and cafés, I decided to visit the Cameroon High Commission to see if half the staff would be nipping out to watch the game either on the premises or nearby. The guy on the desk appeared to ignore me, but a colleague of his who happened to arrive and the bloke who’d been in front of me in the queue were very pally and said I’d either have to go to Paris or watch the match at home. Anyway, it wasn’t an entirely fruitless foray as I came away with a very nice Africa Cup of Nations wallchart, which I put up at work this morning.

There’s a Tunisian café not far from me but when I rang about tonight’s match, the answerphone said they weren’t opening till seven o’clock and so I decided to hit the beautiful Arab café in Edgware Road where I watched the Egypt v Cameroon game last week. I arrived at 4.50 and there were only a handful of customers there plus the big screen was showing American football. I asked the waiter to put the Tunisia match on and ordered a bottle of Moussy Classic non-alcoholic beer. My spirits brightened when a young bloke entered wearing a Tunisian shirt bearing their number 9 Chikhaoui’s name and between us we prevailed upon the waiter to finally get the match on just a minute or two before kick-off.

The stadium in Ghana was almost as empty as the café but that Tunisian bloke playing the oud was there again and he had a mate banging a bass-drum with him this time. There seemed to be far more Angolans in the crowd and several of them were blasting away on trumpets. Little by little more Tunisian fans drifted into the café but there was never much of an atmosphere.

This was the most foul-ridden game I’ve seen for ages and every minute or so there was another player rolling around clutching some part of his leg. I don’t know how it ended without any red cards or serious injuries. I’d been impressed with what I’d seen of Angola in Sunday’s game with Senegal but I was quite disappointed with them during this game. They again displayed their great dribbling skills but this time their passing and particularly their crosses were below par. Tunisia played well and had the best chances in the first half even though their main man Dos Santos was absent for some reason.

Their brightest attacker was number 23 Chirmeti but the best chance of the half went to number 10 Zaiem who hit a great snap-shot from the angle of the area in the 42 nd minute that Lama in the Angolan goal did very well to save. For Angola, number 17 Ze Kalanga had their best chance about five minutes earlier when a great move put him into the box but Kassoui did very well to get down and block it.

During the break I enjoyed the adverts and discovered that the Arabic for crisps is ‘chipsy’. They showed a few highlights from the other game in the same group that had also kicked off at 5 p.m. and Senegal were leading South Africa 1-0. As my Africa Cup of Nations wallchart was on my wall at work and I’d thrown away the sheet on which I’d noted all the scores so far I started to rack my brains to figure out how the results of both matches would affect the two qualifiers from this group and finally realized that as long as the Tunisia v Angola game ended in a draw, they’d both go through.

This could have been the cue for some Coventry v Bristol City May 1977 shenanigans (when the teams passed the ball between each other to ensure that they drew and retained their First Division status while Sunderland were relegated) but not a bit of it. Both teams continued to go for it hammer and tongs and the grimacing faces being carted off on stretchers continued where they’d left off in the first-half. It was very similar to the first-half with plenty of end-to-end action and Angola had the best chance with a great shot from the edge of the box in the 57 th minute. In the 69 th minute I realized that at least some of the Angolans were using nicknames, in the Brazilian manner, when the screen said that number 20 Cange was coming on as sub but the name on his shirt was Loco.

With around half an hour left a portly Arab gentleman came and sat opposite me and in between him consuming his mint tea and baklava and sometimes exclaiming “Ai-Ai-Ai!” we chatted about the game a little. If I understood him correctly, he said that Dos Santos was having a rest, which indicated the confidence of the Tunisian side. He also confirmed my conclusion that both Tunisia and Angola would go through if it ended in a draw as it duly did, 0-0. That was a fair result as there was nothing in it really and I’m glad we’ll be seeing both teams again as they kept it entertaining yet weren’t at their best. For Tunisia, Dos Santos and Chirmeti are likely to get among the goals while for Angola, Mulenessa and Ze Kulanga (officially Baptista) caught the eye particularly.

These were the last games in the first stage of the competition and there’s a couple of days off before the quarter finals. The line-up runs:- hosts Ghana v Dickson Etuhu’s Nigeria, Ivory Coast v Mali, Tunisia v Cameroon and Egypt v Angola. I’m missing it already.

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