Burkina Faso, reduced to 10 men for the last half hour, ended a run of 17 matches and 15 years without an African Nations Cup finals win by beating Ethiopia 4-0 to go top of Group C on Friday.

The unfancied west Africans won with two stunning left-foot strikes from Alain Traore and goals from Djakaridja Kone and Jonathan Pitroipa.

They took all three points despite having goalkeeper Abdoulaye Soulama sent off for a careless handball outside his penalty area after an hour.

Burkina Faso have four points from two games, ahead of holders Zambia and Nigeria, who both have two following their earlier 1-1 draw. Ethiopia are bottom with one.

Traore opened the scoring after 34 minutes and hit an unstoppable second 16 minutes from time. Kone slid the ball in after a good move on 79 minutes and Pitroipa struck in stoppage time as Burkina Faso won a finals match for the first time since 1998 when they hosted the event.

The game was disrupted briefly late on when a man ran on to the pitch in his underpants before being intercepted by officials and bundled away.

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