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Namibia winger Deon Hotto scored in the 88th minute to hand them a shock 1-0 victory over Tunisia at the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday and keep up the sequence of surprise results that have dominated the opening days of the tournament.
Hotto sneaked in at the back post to hand the southern African country, 87 places below Tunisia in the world rankings, a deserved win as they were markedly more enterprising and created the better chances in the opening Group E encounter at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium.
Namibia, competing in their fourth Nations Cup but who had never tasted victory previously, should have won by a more handsome margin but were let down by poor decision making.
Tunisia are the top seeds in the group but laboured through the game and their goalkeeper Bechir Ben Said make several key stops to deny Namibia captain Peter Shalulile.
They join Ghana as former winners who have lost their opening match at the tournament while Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt and Nigeria were all held in games they were expected to win.
The match marked an eighth tournament appearance for Tunisia captain Msakni, equalling the record held by Rigobert Song (Cameroon), Ahmed Hassan (Egypt) and Ghana’s Dede Ayew.
Mali and South Africa play later on Tuesday at the same venue in the second Group E game.