FRANCEVILLE - Guinea coach Michel Dussuyer has maintained that Ghana are still favourites to win the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations even after he accused the referee of helping the Black Stars beat his team.

Guinea crashed out of the competition on Wednesday after they could manage only a 1-1 draw with four-time winners Ghana in a final Group D match.

Ghana, who last won this tournament in 1982, will face Tunisia in a quarterfinal on Sunday night.

"I said it before the tournament that Ghana are my favourites to win this competition and even after how the referee helped them against us I still believe they can go all the way here," said Dussuyer.

"They are a very organised team. They are a great team and against such a team you cannot afford to make any mistakes like we did against them."

Frenchman Dussuyer lashed out at South African referee Daniel Bennett for only penalising Guinea in the first half of the match against Ghana, while he also questioned the first booking Mamadou Bah received before he was eventually sent off.

However, he said he was satisfied with the overall showing of the Syli National at this tournament.

"I'm satisfied with my team. We played well but could not qualify," he remarked.

"We will continue to work hard and improve and hope to qualify for the next tournament.

"We will now look to the future. We have a young team with many of the players getting only their first experience at the Nations Cup in Gabon. We have learnt after playing at a high level competition like this.

"We played good football and showed we have qualities. Therefore we are looking forward to a very positive future."