Ghana halted the fairy-tale run of debutants Cape Verde in the Africa Cup of Nations with a 2-0 quarter-final win Saturday. Victory set up the Black Stars for a February 6 semi-final clash with the winners of Sunday's fixture between Burkina Faso and Togo in Nelspruit. Substitute Mubarak Wakaso gave Ghana the lead in the 54th minute when he fired home a penalty after skipper Asamoah Gyan was fouled inside the box by Carlitos.

Teams for Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final between Cape Verde and Ghana at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium Saturday: Cape Verde: Vozinha, Nivaldo, F. Varela, Nando (capt), Carlitos, Babanco, Soares, T. Varela, Heldon, Ryan Mendes, Julio Tavares Ghana: Dauda, Pantsil, Vorsah, Boye, Afful, Badu, Adomah, Mohammed, Asamoah, Atsu, Gyan (capt) Referee: Seechurn (MRI) afp

By Mike Collett PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Football history is full of unlikely upsets and fairytale victories, but few compare with the tale the dreamweavers of the Cape Verde Islands are spinning in their first ever appearance in the African Nations Cup finals. Their progress from an obscure footballing backwater ranked 182nd out of FIFA's 200-odd members a decade ago to a place just outside the top 50 last year is a remarkable rise by any standards.

By Daniel Alvarenga LISBON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - As Cape Verde Islands tussled with Angola in a nerve-shredding contest that ended with a last-gasp winner in South Africa, soccer fans in Portugal were left biting their nails as they followed the twists and turns of the first African Nations Cup clash between the two former colonies.