Ivory Coast didn't need Didier Drogba to earn a berth in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations on Saturday, while Emmanuel Adebayor was crucial to keep Togo's hopes of advancing alive.

The Elephants beat Tunisia 3-0 despite keeping Drogba in the reserves for most of the match in Rustenburg, while Adebayor came through in Togo's 2-0 win by scoring a first-half goal that keeps his team a draw or a win away from the next round.

Togo will decide its fate in a match against Tunisia next Wednesday.

Togo's win was marked by a broken goalpost that stopped the match for 15 minutes, and for Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic kicking the ball in the referee's direction because he didn't call a penalty kick in his team's favor.

The tournament's biggest star, Drogba was benched by Ivory Coast Sabri Lamouchi along with three other starters after the team's lackluster performance in the opener. He entered the match in the 67th but created few opportunities.

He was quick to downplay his absence.

"There is nothing to say," Drogba said. "(Lamouchi) picks his team and we adapt and we play. That's the same for everyone. Don't try to make it a big deal because I was on the bench, because it's not. Really not."

Kolo Toure, who made defensive mistakes in the opener, also was left out of the starting lineup.

"Those we fielded were the ones I believe were ready to play against Tunisia from the very first minute of the game," Lamouchi said through a translator.

Gervinho, the scorer of the late winner in the first match, proved he was ready again, scoring early to put the title favorite on track for the win at Royal Bafokeng Stadium. Yaya Toure added another in the 87th and substitute Didier Ya Konan sealed the victory in the 90th.

Adebayor needed to come up big for Togo to keep it in contention in the difficult Group D and he did just that.

He scored in a breakaway in the 32nd and led his team to the important victory.

"I'm extremely happy," Adebayor said. "We knew that we needed to win this game to be able to advance and we dominated from the start."

Halilhodzic, the experienced Bosnian coach, was far from happy.

After what appeared to be a missed call for a penalty kick for his team in the 57th, Halilhodzic entered the pitch briefly and kicked the ball toward the area where Madagascar referee Hamada Nampiandraza was surrounded by Algeria players. The referee apparently didn't see the coach kicking the ball.

"Today was disastrous," Halilhodzic said. "I really don't know what happened. We built a team to win. It's a team with a bright future but there is still a lot of work to do. I feel deeply ashamed. It's hard to analyze. We didn't play very good football."

The match had to be stopped for 15 minutes after the 86th because the goalpost tilted backward after an Algeria player ran into the back of the net. Nearly 10 people worked to try to fix it and eventually the woodwork had to be removed and reinstalled.

Ivory Coast has six points from two matches. Togo and Tunisia have three each, but the Togolese squad has the tiebreaker advantage because of a better goal differential. Tunisia will need a victory in the final group match to advance.

On Sunday, Group A will be decided with host South Africa needing a draw with Morocco at Moses Mabhida Stadium. Cape Verde plays Angola at the same time at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and has to better Morocco's result to be certain of a spot in the last eight and a memorable first major tournament for the small island nation.

A win for Morocco against South Africa means Cape Verde could knock the home team out with a victory over the slumping Angolans.

In Nelspruit, Nigeria's players continued to criticize the refereeing, with midfielder Ogenyi Onazi claiming the officials are "killing African football."

The comments came in a statement from the team after Egyptian referee Ghead Grisha on Friday awarded a dubious penalty against Onazi, which helped Zambia claim a 1-1 draw.

Nigeria captain Vincent Enyeama called it "the worst penalty award I have ever seen in my entire football career," while defender Azubuike Egwueke said the Confederation of African Football "should help us plead with the referees to be fair to the team."