Heavyweights line up as Africa Cup of Nations reaches knockout stage

RABAT – The past three Africa Cup of Nations finals were littered with giant-slaying performances and shock results, but the latest edition in Morocco has gone with form and assured a heavyweight line-up of teams for the knockout fixtures at the weekend.

The first round of matches concluded on Dec 31 with only one former champion, Zambia, eliminated but the other 11 past winners reached the last 16, setting up potentially mouth-watering showdowns from now on.

Only Mozambique and Tanzania had never progressed to the knockout stages previously, squeezing through among the best third-placed finishers, while Sudan are past the group stage for only the second time since they won the competition in 1970.

But for the rest, Africa’s top 12 ranked teams are all through, including seven sides heading to the World Cup in mid-2026. They will begin a hefty battle for the continental football crown on Jan 3, with second-ranked Senegal against Sudan in Tangier in the first knockout game.

Senegal topped their group only on goal difference from the Democratic Republic of Congo and will have to do without suspended captain Kalidou Koulibaly, sent off on Dec 30 when they beat Benin 3-0.

But they have impressive depth in their squad as do many of the other leading protagonists, who were able to rest key players ahead of the knockout stages because they had already secured last-16 berths before playing their final group fixtures.

Hosts Morocco, however, were at full strength as they delivered a convincing 3-0 win over Zambia to top Group A after much criticism of nervy performances in their opening two matches.

There is still much expectation on the hosts, who are Africa’s top-ranked team and were World Cup semi-finalists in Qatar just over three years ago, as well as heavy favourites before the start of this tournament.

“From now on every game is a cup final,” said home coach Walid Regragui ahead of the Dec 4 clash against Tanzania in Rabat.

“We play as a team of 12 because we feel the whole coun­try behind us. Moroc­cans are nat­ur­ally emo­tional, they need con­fid­ence. After the draw against Mali, there was frus­tra­tion. We want to make the fans happy. The play­ers want this cup and if we unite, God will help us.”

Algeria and Nigeria were the two teams with a 100 per cent record but while Nigeria are fancied over Mozambique on Jan 5, Algeria’s clash with DR Congo in Rabat on Jan 6 is the match that is receiving most of the early attention.

“It’s going to be a big match. The key will be mental, because they are a big team and so are we,” said Algeria defender Mehdi Dorval after his side’s 3-1 victory over Equatorial Guinea on Dec 31. REUTERS