Africa Cup of Nations
Round of 16 Results
- Mali 2-1 Burkina Faso
- South Africa 2-0 Morocco
Quarter-final fixtures
- Nigeria v Angola
- DR Congo v Guinea
- Mali v Ivory Coast
- Cape Verde v South Africa
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ACHRAF HAKIMI MISSED a vital late penalty as much-fancied Morocco became the latest heavyweight casualty of the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday, suffering a shock 2-0 defeat to South Africa in the last 16.
Evidence Makgopa gave South Africa the lead just before the hour-mark in the Ivorian coastal city of San-Pedro, but Morocco had the chance to draw level five minutes from time from the penalty spot.
Paris Saint-Germain star Hakimi squandered the opportunity, sending his kick off the top of the bar and over, before Morocco’s misery was compounded as Sofyan Amrabat was sent off in stoppage time and Teboho Mokoena scored South Africa’s second from the resulting free-kick.
Bafana Bafana go through to a quarter-final on Saturday in Yamoussokro against tiny Cape Verde, who have been one of the surprise packages of the tournament so far.
That’s a showdown Shamrock Rovers star Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes will be relishing.
But Morocco, World Cup semi-finalists in 2022, add to an ever-growing list of the continent’s biggest names to have been knocked out of this Cup of Nations, 24 hours after champions Senegal were eliminated on penalties by hosts Ivory Coast.
Africa’s top-ranked side were hoping to follow up their remarkable run to the last four in Qatar just over a year ago by winning their second AFCON title, 48 years after their first.
Instead they go the same way as Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt in being knocked out, meaning none of the five top-ranked African nations will be present in the quarter-finals, as well as none of the four semi-finalists from the last edition.
Earlier, Lassine Sinayoko scored his third goal at the AFCON as Mali reached the quarter-finals for the first time since 2013 by defeating Burkina Faso 2-1.
An early Edmond Tapsoba own goal got Mali off to a great start in the 1ast 16 tie and Auxerre’s Sinayoko doubled the lead just after half-time.
Bertrand Traore reduced arrears from a penalty for Burkina Faso, who had the ball in the net again only for Issoufou Dayo to be ruled offside.
Mali, who have had two first round and two last-16 exits since finishing third 11 years ago, face hosts Ivory Coast in Bouake on Saturday with a semi-final place on the line.
“It was a really tough match against a good side. We had to work extra hard, but I am glad we eventually got the result,” said Sinayoko.
“We can celebrate this victory while keeping at the back of our minds that there is still a lot of work ahead.”
