( CNN ) -- Ethiopia had waited 31 years for this moment -- and its football players did n't disappoint as it produced an impressive performance to take a point from defending champion Zambia . Forced to play with 10-men for much of the contest following the dismissal of goalkeeper Jemal Tassew , Ethiopia overcame a first-half penalty miss and a Collins Mbesuma goal to claim a 1-1 draw . Adane Girma 's 65th minute strike sparked wild celebrations amongst the Walya Antelopes ' fans and coach Sewnet Bishaw was left delighted with his team 's performance . Ibrahim eyes Africa Cup of Nations chance . `` I 'm happy as we missed a penalty and drew . This is our first experience after 31 years so , as you see , it was fantastic for our football , '' he told reporters . `` The players have shown their characters , and shown the rest of the world they can play football . `` The goalkeeper also has to defend , he went to defend the ball , and should n't have been red carded . '' Ethiopia should have been ahead even by the time Tassew had been sent off for a reckless challenge on Chisamba Lungu 10 minutes before the break . Mourinho mentors Cape Verde 's 'Special One ' Playing against a Zambia side consisting of 10 of the 11 which had won the competition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea last year , Ethiopia started in impressive fashion and came agonizingly close to scoring . Ahmed Said raced through on goal and lifted the ball over the on rushing Kennedy Mweene but the ball somehow bounced over the crossbar . Buoyed by a vociferous following , Ethiopia continued to threaten and had the perfect opportunity to take the lead on 23 minutes when Said was fouled inside the penalty area by Lungu . But the striker appeared to lose his nerve at the crucial moment as his effort was easily dealt with by Mweene . That miss looked to have taken the momentum out of Ethiopia 's sails and it was left firmly on the back foot 12 minuets later as Tassew was shown a straight red card after taking out Lungu in dangerous fashion . Africa Cup of Nations 2013 : The teams . Slowly but surely , Zambia began to take the upper hand and it was no surprise when Mbesuma took Isaac Chansa 's headed pass in his stride before firing home from close range . But Ethiopia was not to be denied , and despite enduring a barrage of pressure , it fought back to equalize with 25 minutes remaining . Substitute Addis Hintsa picked out Said and it was his pass which allowed captain Girma to fire home at the near post past Mweene to seal a point . Mbesuma came close to stealing a winner for Zambia but coach Herve Renard admitted his team were fortunate not to lose following a disappointing display . Mali grab first win of Africa Cup of Nations . He told reporters : `` First of all I would like to congratulate Ethiopia for a very good performance . `` I 'm not surprised -- I said be careful of this team , they are able to play very good football . `` Today , we have to thank our goalkeeper -- without Kennedy Mweene it could have been a very , very bad result . `` Our fans expected more than we did today , and they are right . Today , it was the fault of the coach . I did not prepare the team well to start the competition -- we 'll see how things go after the third game . Nigeria held . In Group C 's other game , Nigeria conceded a 94th minute equalizer as Burkina Faso grabbed a 1-1 draw . Emmanuel Emenike 's 22nd minute strike had put the Super Eagles ahead and it looked on course for victory until defender Efe Ambrose was shown a second yellow card with 16 minutes remaining . And with just seconds remaining , Alain Traore rounded off a a wonderful counter-attack to steal a point and leave Nigeria stunned . `` All four teams have one point so everything is open , '' Burkina Faso coach Paul Put told reporters . `` The performance today showed who Burkina are -- we have quality in the team . `` We were missing some key players so I am very proud of what we did . I was confident of getting a point against Nigeria . `` This was a very good result for us and I am looking forward to the second game against Ethiopia . '' Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi , who won the competition as a player in 1994 , insists the disappointing of failing to close out the game will not affect his players . He told reporters : `` I am not going to let anything bring us down . I 'm very proud of the boys , who did everything I wanted of them . `` This game is gone and the next game against Zambia is very , very important . I 'll pick up the players and motivate them . ''
Ethiopia marked return to Africa Cup of Nations with 1-1 draw against Zambia . Ethiopia missed first half penalty and had goalkeeper sent off . Collins Mbesuma gave Zambia the lead only for Adane Girma to equalize . Nigeria held to 1-1- draw by Burkina Faso in Group C 's other game .