A depleted Ghana side ensured their passage through to the quarter-finals, with a narrow 1-0 victory over a determined Burkina Faso side.
Andre Ayew's solitary effort proved to be enough for the Black Stars as they secured second spot in Group B.
Marseille midfielder Ayew profited from some woeful marking to head home after 30 minutes, while Burkina Faso's hopes of finding a route back into the game were extinguished shortly after the hour mark when Mamadou Tall was given his marching orders.
Ghana follow Ivory Coast through to the last eight from the three-team Group B.
The Ghanaians were forced to make further changes to a squad already heavily-affected by injuries after Michael Essien's withdrawal from the tournament through injury.
And they emerged with an air of determination in an unfamiliar changed strip of red and yellow, with Burkina Faso in white.
Ghana had a great chance to take an early lead from a free kick in the second minute, which Kwadwo Asamoah sailed straight over.
Burkina Faso had their own chance to grab an early advantage when the impressive Hamburg winger Jonathan Pitroipa burst into the box at speed all the way from midway, only to see his effort cut out by Richard Kingson in the Ghana goal.
Ghana took the lead when a free-kick cleared to the right was sent back into the box finding Ayew unmarked, and the midfielder diverted his header downwards into the right-hand corner of the net.
The Burkinabe were reduced to 10 men on 66 minutes after Tall was sent off following a challenge which left Asamoah Gyan clutching his face, although the decision appeared to be a harsh one.
There were nervous moments for Ghana a minute from time, when substitute Moumouni Dagano - who only started on the bench, despite scoring a record 12 goals in qualification - fired a free kick from just outside the box over, to the relief of the Ghanaian defence.
Milovan Rajevac's reward for guiding his team to the last eight will be a meeting with hosts Angola in Luanda on Sunday.
"This was a very important game for our team - psychologically it was tough," Rajevac said.
"It was a competitive match, Burkina Faso played more offensively than they had against Ivory Coast.
"They were capable of scoring, especially from set pieces."
Duarte acknowledged afterwards that he sent his team out to play a much more offensive game against Ghana.
"We attacked more than in our opening game against Ivory Coast because whoever plays for a draw will lose.
"Ghana have good players. We tried to get back into the match after they scored but then we went down to ten men and that made things difficult."
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