Ugly scenes at AFCON as referee has to be ushered off pitch & shielded from angry Mali players after chaotic end to Ivory Coast defeat that saw THREE players sent off

Ivorian substitutes Simon Adingra and Oumar Diakite scored in second-half stoppage time and extra-time respectively, cancelling out Nene Dorgeles' opener for Mali, to send the tournament hosts into the last four at Stade de la Paix on Saturday evening.
However, the match was an ill-tempered affair at times, with Odilon Kossounou being sent off for two yellow cards just before half time for Ivory Coast and then matchwinner Diakite and Mali's Hamari Traore were also dismissed - the former for taking his shirt off whilst celebrating his goal after being on a booking and the latter was red carded for taking his protests too far. Referee Mohamed Adel was then ushered off the pitch as angry Mali players remonstrated with the official.

After scraping into the knockout stages by the skin of their teeth, thanks to results elsewhere going in their favour, Ivory Coast squeaked past Senegal in the last 16 on penalties. They have now pulled off a miraculous comeback against Mali despite being down to 10 men for the majority of the contest.

Tournament hosts Ivory Coast qualified for the knockout stages as they were among the best third-placed sides in the competition from the group stages. The Elephants have won this competition on two occasions, the first time in 1992 and the second was in 2015.

Ivory Coast now face the Democratic of the Congo in the second semi-final on Wednesday, February 7, at Alassane Ouattara Stadium. Nigeria are in the other semi-final and they will play either Cape Verde or South Africa on the same date.