The final two African Cup of Nations round of 16 matches go down on Wednesday evening in Cameroon. The tournament has so far been exciting with continental giants have fallen, spectacular goals scored and thirteen red cards flashed. Basically AFCON has had everything, disasters included.Round of 16 comes a close on Wednesday with two big matches lined up. Bigwigs Ivory Coast face off with the tournament’s record winners Egypt before dark horses Mali entertain Equatorial Guinea. The matches start at 7pm and 10 pm respectively.Senegal and Morocco advanced to the #AFCON2021 quarterfinals yesternight. Who goes through tonight? Fixtures Ivory Coast vs Egypt – 7PM EAT Mali vs Equatorial Guinea – 10PM EAT Your predictions? pic.twitter.com/pXfPecf2j7— Jeff Kinyanjui (@Nyash88) January 26, 2022 Ivory Coast vs Egypt The Elephants have been strong in the tournament so far. They won two of their three group stage matches against Algeria and Equatorial Guinea with the other ending in a draw after a goalkeeping error in stoppage time. They particularly showed their title credentials against Algeria when they whipped the defending champions 3-1, a result that knocked Algeria out of the tournament.Egypt on the other hand have not been too convincing. They lost to Nigeria in the opening game before registering 1-0 wins over Guinea Bissau and Sudan. They are yet to hit top form in the tournament but you can never write off the record AFCON winners. In the last edition, they exited the competition in the round of 16 and they will be keen to avoid a repeat of the same when they face one of the title favorites, Ivory Coast.The last time the two teams met at AFCON was in 2008 where Egypt, the eventual winners whipped the Elephants 4-1Ivory Coast Patrice Beaumelle anticipates a closely fought entertaining game. “This outsider status suits us very well; we know where we are going. We are happy to have finished first in our group, now that is behind us because we will face a great team from Egypt with players who are used to playing in Africa. This will be a tactical match, closed but very exciting. The most important thing is that we want to continue our way”.Egypt’s Carlos Queiroz opines that his team is growing strong in the tournament. “Egypt are getting stronger in this competition. From the first to the last group game, you have noticed that the team is better. Against Cote d’Ivoire, we will ignore the past to focus on the present. We are going to make sure that the best team on the pitch is Egypt. Tomorrow we can please the millions of fans across Egypt. We have great players and we are a beautiful team”.West & North Africa Cup of Nations 🤭Quarterfinals lineup; Burkina Faso vs TunisiaSenegal vs Mali/Equatorial GuineaThe Gambia vs CameroonIvory Coast/Egypt vs Morocco Hosts Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea in there fighting for Central Africa. East and Southern Africa? 😮 pic.twitter.com/V5snKggxFi— Usher Komugisha (@UsherKomugisha) January 25, 2022 Mali vs Equatorial Guinea1972 AFCON finalists Mali will entertain 2015 semi-finalists on Wednesday evening. Mali reached the round of 16 after toping group F while Equatorial Guinea finished second in Group E.The two teams have met thrice in the African Cup of Nations with Mali winning all the three matches and head into the game as favorites.Mali have been boosted by the return of Moussa Djenepo from suspension while Guinea will be without Dorian Hanza who is injured.Mali coach Mohamed Magassouba is looking forward to the match. he admitted that his side will be facing a great Equatorial-Guinea team but they will go all out to win.“This group has matured, we adapt to the reality of the match. Behind self-sacrifice, will and power, we play to make our people proud. We will face a good team from Equatorial Guinea. We respect them but we will play to win. I always tell my players we play to win; we want this cup. Mali is one of the best nations in African football, it takes a continental trophy to top it off,” he stated.Wednesday January 26Game 7: Ivory Coast vs Egypt, 7pm (Japoma Stadium, Douala)Game 8: Mali vs Equatorial Guinea, 10pm (Limbe Stadium, Limbe)— Bree Mo’ngina! (@beebree0) January 26, 2022 His Equatorial Guinea counterpart, Juan Micha says his team will be fearless.“We are motivated to play, and will just apply our system with our way of doing things. The players are concerned with the same state of mind. We don’t play according to the opponent; each match has its story. We respect the teams but we go for the win without fear because we have worked hard, we have shown that we can go further,” he said.
