My prediction for the first day of the quarter finals of the African Cup of Nations was right on: Ghana did beat Cape-Verde by a 2-0, and Mali edged out the host country South Africa 1-1 by penalty shoot out (3-1), and advanced to the semi-finals.

However, on the 2nd day, all went wrong. The cup’s big favorite, Côte d’Ivoire, were edged out by valiant Nigeria by 2-1.  The Super Eagles of Stephen Keshi maintained the pressure on the Elephants throughout the game, and came out the stronger side.  All hails to Stephen Keshi who managed to line up a strong offense, and defense, to take down the mighty favorites Côte d’Ivoire of Didier Drogba.  Unfortunately, this ends up the dream of the ‘greatest generation’ (as Didier Drogba, Bonaventure Kalou, Kolo Touré, Yaya Touré, Boubacar Barry, etc are known) of Côte d’Ivoire to ever lift up the African Cup of Nations.  Although I am sad for Didier Drogba who has been one of Africa’s greatest players of the past decade (and one of the world’s best forwards), I salute Nigeria’s hard work which got them through to the semi-finals.  After lifting cups in Europe, Didier never got a chance to lift an African trophy… quite sad…

Lastly, Burkina Faso beat Togo 1-0 to find themselves in their first ever semi-final.

The line-up for Wednesday will be fun to watch: Ghana vs. Burkina Faso (you have guessed who will be my favorite to win that game: Ghana), and Nigeria vs. Mali promises to bring the heat up (Nigeria of Stephen Keshi being my favorite).

Who do you think will end up in the final of the 2013 African Cup of Nations? What do you think the scores for the semi-finals will be?