JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Burkina Faso won 3-2 on penalties against Ghana in north-eastern city Nelspruit after a controversial 1-1 draw with the winners conceding a harshly-awarded penalty, having a goal disallowed, and a man sent off.

Jonathan Pitroipa offered Burkina Faso so much with his pace down the flanks, but he misses the final after getting a second yellow card for simulation when big-screen replays showed he had been fouled.

Belgium-born Burkina Faso coach Paul Put pulled no punches: “The refereeing decisions were scandalous. We have lost Pitroipa for the final — he is very important to us.

Winning captain Charles Kabore added: “The referee is human — all humans make mistakes — but he happened to make too many tonight. We are not going to dwell on that, we have qualified.”

Nigeria’s midfielder Fegor Ogude (R) vies with Burkina Faso’s Ahmed Musa during the Afcon’s Nigeria vs Burkina Faso group C match AFP PHOTO

Ghana captain and striker Asamoah Gyan admitted: “The better side won on penalties. We are all really sad — that is normal — but we have to psyche ourselves up for the third place play-off with Mali.”

Nigeria exposed a slow Mali defence to lead 3-0 by half-time through goals from Elderson Echiejile, Brown Ideye and Emmanuel Emenike, whose effort may be reviewed by the organisers as it took a massive deflection off Momo Sissoko.

Emenike and Mubarak Wakaso of Ghana share first place with four goals each in the race to finish leading scorer and be awarded the Golden Boot.

Ahmed Musa, on for injured midfield star Victor Moses, added a fourth goal on the hour mark before another substitute, Fantamady Diarra, grabbed a consolation goal.

“Mali are a good team with a great player in Seydou Keita, but they are not very fast at the back and we took advantage of this to score our first two goals,” said Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi.

Mali coach Patrice Carteron said: “I’m still proud of this team — we worked hard even though we did not reach the final. Now we must try and match the performance of last year and finish third.”

With Nigeria through in style, the stage seemed set for a showdown with long-standing football rivals Ghana, a belief strengthened by the early lead Wakaso gave the Black Stars from a penalty that should not have been awarded.

But Aristide Bance from German Bundesliga outfit Augsburg, unmissable on the sandy Mbombela Stadium pitch with his blond dreadlocks, was a constant menace and levelled on 60 minutes.