GHANA comfortably confirmed its mantle as one of the favourites for the 1996 African Nations Cup with a 2-0 defeat of Ivory Coast in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, yesterday. Tony Yeboah and Abedi Pele showed the footballing world an African brand of excellent finishing with goals either side of the break in this group D match.

Meanwhile, Zambia and Algeria played out a disappointing goalless draw in Bloemfontein which made a vivid contrast to Saturday's exciting opening match in this African Nations Cup.

While South Africa had an euphoric 3-0 win over Cameroon, to the deli g ht of 60,000 supporters in Johannesburg, only 6,000 showed up at the 38,000 capacity Free State Stadium for this opening group B match.

Yeboah of Leeds United hit a scintillating 21st minute goal and Pele's was just as impressive to put them firmly in the driving seat to make the quarter finals from group D. It was Ghana's first victory over Ivory Coast in the competition since 1970. Their moot famous duel was in the 1992 final when Ivory Coast won 11-10 on penalties in a match where Pele was suspended. In 1994 Ivory Coast also had the upper hand on Ghana, beating them 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

Yeboah, wearing the same 21 shirt he wears for Leeds, scored with a spectacular left foot volley from the penalty spot after a cross from 22-year-old Samuel Johnson. The skill of Torino's Pele was on show `with another spectacular goal in the 69th minute. A cross from the right by Ndi Lamptey found Pele in the box. The 31 year old striker then nudged the ball left footed past a defender before firing firmly into the top right hand corner from an acute angle with his right.

In the other match, Zambia could not convert their second half superiority into goals.