Host Equatorial Guinea made it to the semifinals and a referee only just made it out of the stadium in one piece as the African Cup of Nations descended into angry chaos last Saturday.
Equatorial Guinea beat Tunisia 2-1 in extra time to make the last four of the continental championship for the first time, and after being helped in a big way by a hotly-disputed penalty call by the referee in the last minute of normal time.
Mauritian referee Rajindraparsad Seechurn was chased by furious Tunisian players, who aimed punches and kicks at him, and only just made it to the safety of the tunnel at the end of the match with a riot police escort.
Congo and Republic of Congo had earlier served up a roller-coaster second half in their quarterfinal, with Congo coming back from 2-0 down with four goals in the last 25 minutes to win 4-2 and reach the semis for the first time in 17 years.
But the drama of that game was completely outdone by the evening's second quarter at Bata Stadium.
With Equatorial Guinea trailing 1-0 and going out of its home tournament, Seechurn awarded it the hugely contentious penalty in the last minute of normal time, when Ivan Bolado appeared to dive to earn the game-changing spot-kick.
Javier Balboa slotted in the penalty deep in stoppage time to send the game to extra time, and also curled in a brilliant winning free kick in the 102nd minute.
Players and coaching staff members clashed near the dugouts, the Tunisian team lost their heads and kicked, tripped and pushed their opponents on the field, and Seechurn had to run for cover at the end, chased by many of Tunisia's furious players.
The players were battered back by riot police as they also tried to get down the tunnel to the referee.
