Ghana celebrates as coach ponders selection

By Mark Gleeson

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghanaians spilt onto the streets of Accra on Sunday to celebrate an African Nations Cup triumph over bitter rivals Nigeria while coach Claude Le Roy went back to his hotel to ponder an upcoming semi-final without his captain.

The red card for John Mensah in the 2-1 quarter-final win over Nigeria was the only blemish of a night of celebrations for Ghana, who are through to a semi-final on Thursday in Accra against either Tunisia or Cameroon.

Fans celebrated the success with dancing in the streets, weaving in and out of traffic, while groups of youths in colourful costume ran alongside roads with replica coffins covered in the green and white colours of Nigeria.

Ghana ended a series of defeats in recent Nations Cup tournaments at the hands of their arch-rivals with a dramatic win at Accra's Ohene Djan stadium, the winning goal coming eight minutes from the end.

The hosts now look ahead to the semi-finals but will play on Thursday without Mensah, suspended after being sent off for a professional foul one hour into Sunday's match.

"I rate John as one of the five best defenders in the world and when you understand his role in the team, you will know what a blow it is to us," said Le Roy.

"John did not make a single mistake in the game and I have seen players not sent off for professional fouls much worse than that," added the Frenchman.

Le Roy, who has already had to field a make-shift defence after Shilla Illiasu failed to recover from injury for the start of the tournament, says he will wait to find out the identity of his semi-final opponents before making any decision.