Equatorial Guinea coach Esteban Becker says beating Tunisia 2-1 in the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals on Saturday night was ‘almost a miracle’.
Nzalang Nacional came from a goal down to defeat the Carthage Eagles 2-1 after extra time and record one of the greatest upsets in Afcon history.
However, there was major controversy surrounding the result, as the home side were awarded a soft penalty in injury time at the end of the regulation 90 minutes which Tunisia felt was unjust.
However, Becker refused to discuss the questionable officiating in the match.
"Tunisia played very well. They have players who play at a high level, while we only have one who plays in a top division in Europe, and that's Javier Balboa," said Becker in the aftermath of the match.
"To beat Tunisia is an achievement, almost a miracle.
"Thanks to the players, the people of [Equatorial] Guinea, the people at the federation, their president and of course the president of the Republic."
Of Tunisia's angry reaction at fulltime, Becker added: "I understand the Tunisians' anger at having lost, because they had the potential to win by several goals.
"But they didn't do it and in the end the game went our way.
"Everyone will contest a penalty that goes against them. In the last minute, who would not protest? I would have protested too.
"But you still need to score the penalty and luckily we have a specialist in Javier Balboa.
"If we spent all our time scrutinising refereeing, we wouldn't be able to play football anymore.
"It was the team ranked 30th (Tunisia are 22nd) in the world against the 118th, and they couldn't beat us in 120 minutes.”
Equatorial Guinea will now face Ghana in the semifinals on Thursday evening.
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