We’re not going to complain about watching football, but sometimes one cannot help but remember the old saying that quality is far more significant than quantity. We’ve had two Round of 16 games and 240 (and a few more) minutes played. And did we get to see the thing that we wanted to see? Well, not so much. Mohamed Salah scored the winning penalty to knock Ivory Coast out of the tournament, but it’s fair to say that the clash of two favourites to lift the trophy didn’t offer the quality to go with the quantity. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That’s fine. With all the Round of 16 matches complete, we’ll now have two football-less days before the quarter-final clash begin.AFCON 2021: Mo Salah sends Egypt through to the quarterfinalsIt’s not about the quantity, it’s not even about the quality. It’s about winningThe National Thunder struck again and eliminated Mali from the running. It was, quite frankly, a terrible game with only two shots on target over 120 minutes, but the tough Thunders won’t care. They just keep banging – and will look to upset Senegal next.And then there were eight.Goal of the day – ZizoWould it be too strange if we picked one of the penalty shoot-out strikes as our goal of the day? It’s not that we didn’t have any choice, but here at Mozzart Sport Kenya we appreciate a sweet strike of a football. And the Egyptian’s penalty was as sweet as they come. In a high-pressure situation, where the entire nation is watching your every move, every step of your run-up, it’s easy to lose your cool and do something silly. But Ahmed Sayed, nicknamed Zizo, trusty midfielder of Zamalek SC, fired a rocket of a penalty straight to the upper right corner of Badra Ali Sangare. Thank you for that, Zizo!في حب ضربات جزاء أحمد السيد زيزو❤#منتخب_مصر 🔥❤ pic.twitter.com/vC2xZpSDVC— Mohamed Salah (@Mohamed23951485) January 26, 2022 Hero of the day – GabaskiEgyptian substitute goalkeeper would have remained nothing more than a bench-warmer if the Pharaohs’ first-choice goalie Mohamed El Shenawy had remained fit. However, in a Hollywood-like chain of events, Gabaski came on and was on the line for the dreaded shoot-out. Of the ten penalties taken, only one was saved – and that was Gabaski’s instinctive stop to deny Manchester United’s Eric Bailly. Gabaski’s fourth cap came a full decade after his first. But, oh, what a day this was. He is the hero of Egypt!His name is Abo Gabal a.k.a GabaskiHis name means father of the mountain!He is indeed a mountain!!#AFCON2021 #Egypt #CIVEGY pic.twitter.com/8O3iaIIX1L— عمو (@TheAkladious) January 26, 2022 Loser of the day – Gianni InfantinoThis guy. No, he didn’t play today. He made no impact on the pitch, but he made us resent FIFA yet again. In these days when football should rule supreme and when the love for the game should be the only thing that matters, the president of the organization that is supposed to nurture the beautiful game made comments that turned eyes, attention and quite a few stomachs around the world. He used Africans who lost their lives in search of a better life to push his agenda of bi-annual World Cups. Yes, we know that he wasn’t even at the AFCON, but we stand by our decision.Gianni Infantino “We have to give the Africans hope that they don’t have to cross the Mediterranean to perhaps be able to have a better life here. We have to give them opportunities and dignity.”Seriously #Infantino#FIFA#WorldCup#AfricaDid I get this wrong? pic.twitter.com/6rihFpsuPt— Moses Wakhisi (@moseswakhisi) January 26, 2022 AFRICA CUP OF NATIONSQuarterfinalSaturday19.00: (8.00) Gambia (3.80) Cameroon (1.57)22.00: (3.40) Burkina Faso (3.00) Tunisia (2.50)Sunday19.00: Egypt – Morocco22.00: Senegal – Equatorial Guinea***odds are subject to change
