Tunisia notch first African title

TUNIS (AFP) - Tunisia's long, painful wait for a meaningful piece of football silverware finally came to end here yesterday when a 2-1 win over Morocco gave them their first ever African Nations Cup title.

Ziad Jaziri scored what proved to be Tunisia's winner in the 52nd minute after a dreadful error by Morocco goalkeeper, Khalid Fouhami, who spilled a sharp drive from Jose Clayton to present Jaziri with an easy chance. Silva dos Santos, with his fourth goal of the tournament, had given Tunisia the lead after just five minutes with a close range header, but seven minutes from half-time, Youssef Mokhtari pulled Morocco level to also register his fourth goal of the competition.

The victory handed French coach, Roger Lemerre, his second continental crown to add to the European championship he won with France in 2000 as the Carthage Eagles finally buried the misery of two previous Nations Cup final defeats in 1965 and 1996.

"We have achieved our target and all the credit must go to the players, officials and supporters," said Lemerre, who refused to take questions on his team's win, preferring instead to make a short statement. "They have made history for the country and this is a day of joy for the whole nation." Morocco coach, Badou Zaki, admitted his side were the authors of their own downfall.

"We committed too many errors and Tunisia exploited them to score two goals," said Zaki, whose team were the most attractive in the tournament and finished as top scorers with 14 goals. Sadly for keeper Fouhami, it wasn't his first gaffe of the tournament as he had also spilled a shot from South Africa's Siyabonga Nomvete in an earlier group game which allowed Patrick Mayo to score.

Tunisia went into yesterday's match without suspended captain, Khaled Badra, but his absence was soon forgotten as the hosts opened the scoring after just five minutes. Jose Clayton's fierce long-range drive was turned around the post by Fouhami.

The resulting corner was only half-cleared with the ball falling to Mehdi Nefti, out on the right, and his clever cross was met by Santos, who darted in between two defenders to head confidently into the corner. However, Mokhtari, who plays his club football for Wacker Burghausen in Germany, was on target in the 38th minute for Morocco's equaliser.

Tunisia left-back, Karim Hagui, hit a lazy clearance which was intercepted by Walid Regragui, whose quick pass released Youssef Hadji down the right flank. Hadji then crossed for Mokhtari, whose diving header was too good for Tunisia goalkeeper, Ali Boumnijel. Seven minutes into the second half, Tunisia hit the decisive goal.

Clayton played a smart one-two with Santos and his fierce left-foot drive slipped out of the grasp of Fouhami and the ball fell at the feet of Jaziri, who had the simplest task to score from just six yards with the Moroccan keeper left to thump the ground in frustration.

Santos, who also had the satisfaction of joining Mokhtari, Cameroon's Patrick Mboma, Jay Jay Okocha of Nigeria and Mali's Frederic Kanoute as tournament top scorer with four goals, praised Lemerre.

Nations-African Nations Cup previous winners

Previous winners of the African Nations Cup, with host countries in parenthesis: 1957 - Egypt (Sudan) 1959 - Egypt (Egypt) 1962 - Ethiopia (Ethiopia) 1963 - Ghana (Ghana) 1965 - Ghana (Tunisia) 1968 - Congo-Kinshasa (Ethiopia) 1970 - Sudan (Sudan) 1972 - Congo (Cameroon) 1974 - Zaire (Egypt) 1976 - Morocco (Ethiopia) 1978 - Ghana (Ghana) 1980 - Nigeria (Nigeria) 1982 - Ghana (Libya) 1984 - Cameroon (Ivory Coast) 1986 - Egypt (Egypt) 1988 - Cameroon (Morocco) 1990 - Algeria (Algeria) 1992 - Ivory Coast (Senegal) 1994 - Nigeria (Tunisia) 1996 - South Africa (South Africa) 1998 - Egypt (Burkina Faso) 2000 - Cameroon (Ghana and Nigeria co-hosts) 2002 - Cameroon (Mali) 2004 - Tunisia (Tunisia)

Note: Congo-Kinshasa and Zaire now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.