Angola’s prospects of staying in Luanda throughout their African Nations Cup campaign are being hampered by an injury crisis ahead of their pivotal Group A encounter with Algeria tomorrow.

The Black Antelopes need to win the group to play their quarter-final at the Estadio 11 de Novembro, which has over twice the capacity of the other tournament venues.

But tournament top-scorer Flavio is a major doubt after the hamstring injury he picked up in Thursday’s 2-0 win over Malawi, as midfielder Djalma, who created Flavio’s goal against the Flames and defender Francisco Zuela, who had an unsuccessful trial with EPL club Wigan last month.

Gilberto, who converted a penalty in Angola’s infamous 4-4 draw with Mali, has returned to light training after an elbow injury.

Defending champions Egypt set a new tournament record with yesterday’s win over Mozambique. They have now gone 13 ACN games unbeaten since they overcame Libya during the 2006 tournament.

The previous record was set by Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions between 2000 and 2004.

There was no scandal surrounding the two players who bet on the outcome of yesterday’s Nigeria-Benin clash.

Benin forward Razak Omotoyossi and Super Eagles’ Obafemi Martins had $25,000 riding on the outcome, with Martins, who did not play in the match, winning the bet after the Squirrels were beaten 1-0.

Omotoyossi explained that the two players are friends and that the bet came from nothing more sinister than a bit of bravado.