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The round of 16 of the African Championship continued tonight (Monday) with a pair of games, when the reigning champion Senegal was eliminated by the host Ivory Coast at the end of a penalty shootout.
Even earlier, Cape Verde continued its preliminary campaign with a victory over Mauritania en route to the quarter-final stage.
Senegal - Ivory Coast 1:1 (5:4 on penalties)
The host lost twice in the group stage and needed salvation from Morocco (beating Zambia and leaving it with two points in Group 6) to be the fourth and last team to qualify from third place.
The current champion needed a lot of luck and even help from the match referee in order to get the ticket to the quarter-final stage, but even with that, she was eliminated and lost the title of African champion in the round of 16.
Already after 4 minutes Habib Diallo took advantage of Sadio Mane's assist and put Senegal in the lead, but five minutes later came a controversial moment when Al Nasser's star skated wildly at the feet of Ibrahim Sangra for a foul that should have earned Mane a red card, but the referee chose to give him only yellow card
The big drama continued towards the end of the 90 minutes when Edouard Mendy tripped Nicolas Pepe in the box, and his Al Ahly team-mate Frank Casilla scored from the penalty spot in the 86th minute to send the game into extra time.
After half an hour without goals, the champion and the host went on to a penalty kick duel from 11 meters.
After 2 exact penalties for each team, Moussa Nyakta, the replacement of Abdoulaye Sak who did not play this time, kicked the bar.
All the other kicks found the net and the host survived the thriller and knocked out the African champions already in the round of 16.
The relegation of Senegal also affects Maccabi Haifa who will receive SC before the match against Maccabi Tel Aviv next week.
The African champion is away.
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Cape Verde - Mauritania 0:1
One of the surprises of the tournament continued at the stage by repeating its record achievement from 2013 in qualifying for the second ever quarter-final stage.
Mauritania managed to advance to the knockout stage for the first time in its history, but Cape Verde proved once again that its success was no accident with the ticket to the next round.
The game was already on its way to extra time after 88 goalless minutes, until Ryan Mendes scored from the penalty spot and opened the signal for celebrations at Cape Verde.
More on the same topic:
Senegal national team
The Ivory Coast national team
Cape Verde national team