Ten-man Mali beat Tunisia on penalties to book AFCON quarterfinal place

Mali triumph punishment shootout aft a 1-1 past ⁠16 gully to acceptable up Africa Cup ‍of Nations quarterfinal with Senegal.

El Bilal Toure scored the winning spot-kick arsenic 10-man Mali bushed Tunisia 3-2 connected penalties to scope the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals aft their last-16 necktie had finished 1-1 astatine the extremity of other time.

It looked arsenic if Tunisia had got the occupation done connected Saturday against a Mali broadside forced to play astir of the crippled a antheral down erstwhile substitute Firas Chaouat headed the Carthage Eagles successful beforehand successful the 88th minute.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4AFCON 2025: All to cognize earlier the round-of-16 matches
• list 2 of 4Chelsea portion ways with manager Maresca aft conscionable 18 months successful charge
• list 3 of 4AFCON 2025: Gabon authorities sacks Aubameyang, suspends nationalist team
• list 4 of 4Real Madrid to ‘push deadline’ for Mbappe to marque Atletico Super Cup return

Mali had defender Woyo Coulibaly sent disconnected successful the 26th infinitesimal astatine the Mohammed V Stadium successful Casablanca, but earned a reprieve erstwhile they were awarded a stoppage-time penalty.

Lassine Sinayoko converted from the spot to instrumentality the necktie to other clip and yet connected to the decisive shootout.

Captain Yves Bissouma, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, blazed Mali’s archetypal footwear implicit the bar, but Ali Abdi past missed for Tunisia earlier Eagles goalkeeper Djigui Diarra saved 2 further penalties and Toure won it.

Tom Saintfiet’s Mali precocious to a quarterfinal adjacent Friday successful Tangier against West African neighbours Senegal, aft the 2022 champions came from down to beat Sudan 3-1 earlier.

Mali person ne'er won the Cup of Nations and their prospects present were not helped erstwhile right-back Coulibaly, presently based successful Italy’s Serie A with Sassuolo, was shown a consecutive reddish paper for raking his studs down the backmost of Hannibal Mejbri’s calf.

Yet the crippled remained goalless and other clip was looming erstwhile Tunisia yet made their numerical superiority number arsenic Elias Saad flighted a shot into the container and Club Africain striker Chaouat stole a march connected his marker to caput home.

That extremity was celebrated by the bulk of the 41,982 assemblage successful Morocco’s largest city, with galore locals choosing to springiness their backing to their chap North Africans.

And yet a necktie that appeared to beryllium implicit took a melodramatic twist successful wounded time, with South African referee Abongile Tom pointing to the spot erstwhile the shot struck the limb of Tunisia defender Yassine Meriah wrong the area.

Auxerre guardant Sinayoko kept his chill done a agelong hold arsenic the authoritative consulted with the VAR squad earlier converting the punishment with the lucifer successful the 96th minute.

Tunisia toiled to make chances successful other clip arsenic dense rainfall fell – the conditions forcing galore spectators successful the mostly uncovered stadium to wantonness their seats.

Chaouat had the shot successful the nett again astatine the commencement of the 2nd play of other time, but was this clip denied by the offside flag.

A punishment shootout appeared inevitable and truthful it transpired, with Bissouma and Nene Dorgeles failing from the spot for Mali.

However, Abdi’s miss and Diarra’s saves from Elias Achouri and Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane allowed Mali to triumph it erstwhile Toure – who had failed to people a punishment successful the aforesaid stadium against Zambia successful the radical signifier – stepped up to score.