Algozoli Nooh wasted the chance to equalize for Sudan when Lassina Traore’s early strike was wide from the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca on Wednesday.
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Late in the second half, French Ligue 1 side Lorient’s Arsene Kouassi sealed Burkinabe’s victory.
After Algeria, both teams had already advanced from Group E to the knockout stage. To advance to the top of the table, Burkinabe simply needed to avoid defeat.
The winners of Group F, which ends later on Wednesday with reigning champions Ivory Coast and Cameroon and Mozambique, will face the 2013 runners-up in a final-16 match at Marrakech.
Sudanese lost to Equatorial Guinea for the second time in three games, but a 1-0 victory over them made them the best third-placed team.
Since winning the Cup of Nations in 1970, Sudan, which is ranked 117th in the world, has only won two of its 19 matches.
It would be a surprise if they defeated Senegal’s Sadio Mane on Saturday in Tangier because this is their second appearance in the knockout stages since then.
However, getting this far is a great thing for a nation that has been devastated by conflict since fighting broke out between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.
In the opening 16 minutes of a Burkinabe team that has made seven changes since their most recent game, Traore headed in from Stephane Aziz Ki’s chipped cross.
To the delight of the majority of the 10, 084 crowd, Sudan were awarded a penalty midway through the first half.
Herve Koffi, a goalkeeper from Burkinabe, awkwardly rushed out and defeated Algozoli while recovering from an injury.
The Sudanese winger rose, but the spot-kick was only able to be aimed wide of the left-hand post.
Kouassi broke into the area to give Burkinabe a 2-0 lead at half-time, but the injured Koffi was substituted for Kilian Nikiema.
Equatorial Guinea defeated Algeria in Rabat to advance to the group stage with a flawless record.
Nothing was in the Moroccan capital’s hands as Equatorial Guinea was already eliminated and Algeria had already qualified for Group E.
With a tie in the last-16 set to occur against the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic made nine changes to his starting lineup.
Algeria won the game despite the changes, scoring three goals in 14 first-half minutes.
On 19 minutes, Ibrahim Maza released Fares Chaibi for the winning goal, which was scored by Defender Zineddine Belaid from a corner.
Emilio Nsue pulled one back for Equatorial Guinea after the impressive Maza of Bayer Leverkusen completed his team’s third.
After an 11-year ineligible career with Equatorial Guinea, it was Nsue’s first legal entry to the Africa Cup of Nations.
The 35-year-old Nsue was the tournament’s top scorer, scoring five goals, but FIFA in 2024 declared him unfit for Equatorial Guinea and for six months to prevent him from playing for the nation’s team.
Nsue was finally given the march of this year’s eligibility.
He was sidelined for the Africa Cup after missing his team’s opening game, 2-1 defeat to Burkinabe, before starting as a substitute for the team’s 1-0 defeat to Sudan. On Wednesday, he made his first start for Algeria and scored from a challenging angle.
Source: Aljazeera
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