Africa Cup of Nations: Equatorial Guinea edge Mali on penalties


Limbe, January 27 (BNA): Equatorial Guinea continued its phenomenal run as it reached the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup with a 6-5 penalty shootout victory over Mali after a goalless draw in Limbe on Wednesday.


Equatorial Guinea are the last team to qualify for the quarter-finals, where they meet Senegal on Sunday, and 20-year-old goalkeeper Jesus Ohno was thanking him for his lead as he made two saves in penalty shootouts that ended after 16 kicks, Reuters reports.


Mali was the favorite but underperformed, despite dominating possession and creating the most chances.


Ono saved the last kick from Mali defender Valai Sakho although the VAR first checked it to see if he had moved off his line before taking the kick.


He did indeed go forward but his back foot was still late on the line as Sakho took the penalty and allowed the kick to stand by the referee’s side, leading to tearful celebrations.


Equatorial Guinea defeated defending champions Algeria and Sierra Leone in the group stage, and has now added another big scalp.


They had no real chances in the match but never let Mali into any rhythm, which proved difficult to break.


Mali got a penalty in the 40th minute when Jose Miranda knocked out Moussa Doumbia.


However, referee Bakari Jasama was encouraged to look again at his decision and, after consulting the stadium-side VAR screen, changed his mind and overruled what appeared to be an easy penalty award.

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Malian striker Ibrahima Kone hit the ball early in the first half and towards the end of the first half Amadou Haidara had a good chance to open the scoring but did not connect properly with his effort.


As the match went on, the obvious opportunities waned, with Mali making no progress in the Equatorial Guinea penalty area while the underdogs waited for rare opportunities on the counter-attack.


Equatorial Guinea’s victory on penalties came after a similar success to Egypt earlier in the day in Douala, after they drew 0-0 with Ivory Coast.


Coach Juan Micha said that it is historic for us to get this far and comes after excellent work by my players.


It’s a huge disappointment because he shouldn’t even have been taken to penalty kicks, said his Malian counterpart Mohamed Magsoba, whose country plays in the World Cup qualifiers in March. We deserved more today.”









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