Final AfCON round of 16 matches

The chaos that engulfed the hosting team, Ivory Coast in their 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea would have derailed from causing an upset against the reigning champions, Senegal who were determined to sweep away the Africa Cup of Nations the second time.

Ivory Coast put up a good spirit that led them to the extra time and finished with penalties. The separation of the two sides during the 90 minutes was difficult as Fae Kessie canceled the Senegalese opener by Habibou Diallo when Ivory Coast was awarded a penalty.

Sadio Mane put his game well but Fae Kessie and Nicolas Pepe hammered the game till the end. The Elephants are to face either Mali or Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals.

In another surprising AFCON match, Cape Verde played well in Abidjan against the first-time qualifiers in the round of 16, Mauritania. This will be the second time for CapeVerde to appear in the quarter-final of AFCON as their first time was in 2013.

Mauritania goalkeeper, Babacar Niasse made a mistake by bringing down a substitute Gilson Benchimol, who was through with the goal after a defensive mistake in the 88th minute. Ryan Mendes was given the chance by the Blue Sharks to take the penalty and he composed himself and gave them the winning of 1-0 thus proceeding to penalties.

In today’s round of 16 matches, Burkina Faso and Mali will be trying to cancel one another to reach the quarter-finals at 20:00 and The Bafafa Bafafa of South Africa will also be racing for the quarter-finals at 23:00  as they will be facing the football giants of Morocco who are determined to reach the finals.