South Africa stun AFCON favourites Morocco; Mali advance | OneFootball

The AFCON round of 16 was back underway Tuesday with two more exciting clashes. Here is what went down around the grounds.

South Africa shock favourites Morocco

Scorers: Makgopa 57′, Mokoena 90+5′

South Africa pulled off one of the shocks of the tournament as they sent one of the competition’s favourites, Morocco, crashing out.

It was a one sided affair up until the goal, as Morocco poured the pressure on in search of a deserved opener – luck was not on their side however.

After riding their luck throughout the opening hour, South Africa stunned the partisan crowd when Evidence Makgopa broke in behind the Moroccan defence to fire home the opener.

The trajectory of the tie was flipped on its head in the final 10 minutes however, as South Africa were penalised for a clear hand-ball in the box, forcing the referee to award Morocco a spot-kick after the a VAR check.

After a long wait, Achraf Hakimi stepped up with a chance to level the score, but the PSG man sent his powerful effort off the crossbar, seeing South Africa survive the late scare.

Morocco’s woes continued in stoppage time when Sofyan Amrabat was sent off for a last-ditch challenge.

The resulting free-kick was fired home into the top corner by Teboho Mokoena with aplomb, killing off the tie for good.

Mali ease past Burkina Faso to book quarter-final spot

Scorers: Tapsoba (OG) 3′, Sinayoko 47′ ; Traore (P) 57′

Goals at the beginning of each half saw Mali book their spot in the AFCON quarter-finals.

It was the worst possible start for Burkina Faso, as Edmond Tapsoba saw the ball fly into his own net after a nice Mali move inside five minutes.

It was all Mali after their early strike, but the Eagles struggled to find that all-important second goal to potentially put themselves out of reach.

It didn’t take Éric Chelle’s men long to find that goal after the restart however, as a superb counter-attack was capped off by Lassine Sinayoko to double the lead just two minutes into the second half.

Mali’s two-goal advantage did not last long. After a VAR review, Burkina Faso was awarded a penalty-kick thanks to a handball in the box. The spot-kick was coolly dispatched by Bertrand Traoré to cut the lead in half once again.

There would be no roaring comeback for the Stallions however, as Mali held on to book a showdown with the hosts in the quarter-final.