GENERAL

Africa Cup of Nations catch-up – Everything you need to know heading into the knockout stage

   

AFCON catch-up – everything you need to know heading into the knockout stage. (Picture: Metro)

The group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations is now over as the best eight teams enter the knockout phase of the competition.
Senegal, fronted by Liverpool forward Sadio Mane, are the clear bookies favourites to win the tournament after defending champions Ivory Coast crashed out in particularly unspectacular fashion.
Gone with the Les Éléphants are hotly tipped Algeria who failed to impress despite having the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Islam Slimani and Nabil Bentaleb in their ranks.
Hosts Gabon, who put the weight of expectation on the shoulders

of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, didn’t do enough to get out of Group A and will watch the rest of the tournament go on without them.
But who is left in the race?

Fixtures

The quarter-finals will be played on Saturday and Sunday across four different venues.
Burkina Faso vs Tunisia will be the first game to kick-start the knockout phase before being followed by Senegal vs Cameroon, Congo DR vs Ghana before Egypt vs Morocco closes out the Sunday.

AFCON quarter-final fixtures

Saturday 28th January 2017
16:00: Burkina Faso v Tunisia
19:00: Senegal v Cameroon
Sunday 29th January 2017
16:00: Congo DR v Ghana
19:00: Egypt v Morocco

Favourites

As mentioned earlier, Senegal are cruising into the quarter-finals unbeaten despite making ten changes to their team for the 2-2 draw with Algeria as the reserves did their best to stake a claim in the starting XI.
Sadio Mane’s men will take on Cameroon, who, by their own admission, aren’t quite the force they once were and managed to scrape through the group stages by the skin of their teeth.
Ghana are always in with a shout given the strength in-depth throughout their squad and will fancy their chances against the tournament’s surprise package in Congo DR.

     Senegal's forward Saido Mane Keita after scoring against Zimbabwe (Picture:Getty)

Top scorer

Yes the tournament has boasted the likes of Aubameyang, Mahrez, Slimani, Mane and Wilfired Bony, but none of those names sit top of the scoring charts.
Introducing Junior Kabananga, the Congo international who normally plays his football in the Kazakhstan Premier League with FC Astana.
Kabananga has notched three goals so far, one in each fixture which includes the winner against Morocco as Congo finish at the top of Group C.

Surprise package
Burkina Faso, who don’t celebrate a particularly star-studded squad, have emerged as surprise Group A winners ahead of the likes of Cameroon and Gabon.
Chelsea youngster Bertrand Traore is the only real name that jumps out in a list of players in their ranks and the 21-year-old netted in their only win of the tournament so far; a 2-0 victory over Guinea-Bissau.
Not fancied by many going into the tournament despite finishing as runners-up in 2013’s tournament, Burkina Faso will be feeling quietly confident going into the clash with Tunisia who were humbled by Senegal in the first game of the tournament.

Burkina Faso celebrate after beating Guinea-Bissau. (Picture: Getty)

Biggest flops

With Gabon, Aubameyang, Ivory Coast and Algeria all in the reckoning it makes this one a tough call.
It was disappointing to see Aubameyang’s failures with hosts Gabon who couldn’t get out of the group, but it would perhaps be unrealistic to think they could have gone on to win the tournament.
Ivory Coast, the defending champions, performed absolutely dismally throughout and were rightly dumped out in the group stages as they almost underestimated Togo, Congo and Morocco and let the tag of ‘favourites’ go to their head.
Algeria though, with the wealth of talent at their disposal, really failed to live up to the billing. With quality all throughout the squad and with Riyad Mahrez leading the attack, the fact that they failed to register a single victory is quite simply unacceptable.
Biggest flops: Algeria. 

Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez, Yacine Brahimi and Islam Slimani failed to inspire. (Picture: Getty)

Which Premier League players are still in action?

Arsenal will still be without Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Elneny who will be doing his best to get past Morocco in the next round alongside team-mate and Hull man Ahmed Elmohamady.
Stoke will welcome back Wilfired Bony but will have to do without duo Mame Biram Diouf and Ramadan Sobhi who remain on international duty:

Premier League players still at the AFCON

Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny (Egypt)
Everton: Idrissa Gueye (Senegal)
Hull City: Ahmed Elmohamady (Egypt), Dieumerci Mbokani (Congo)
Leicester City: Daniel Amartey (Ghana)
Liverpool: Sadio Mane (Senegal)
Stoke: Mame Biram Diouf (Senegal), Ramadan Sobhi (Egypt)
Sunderland: Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia)
West Ham: Andre Ayew (Ghana), Cheikou Kouyate (Senegal)

(Culled from Metro,UK)