What to expect from the quarter-finals

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The African Cup of Nations will have some new faces in the semifinals this year, all semi-finalists of the 2017 tournament having already been eliminated. Only a few of the favorites remain, but the cursed Madagascar, which is in its first CAN finals, continues to surprise the continent. Here is an overview of the four CAN quarterfinal matches and how these teams have gone so far.

Senegal v Benin

Senegal are the best African team according to the FIFA ranking system, but they are one of only three remaining teams to have never won this tournament. Benin has also not won the CAN, but one of these two clubs will be only two games of its first trophy of the African Cup of Nations by Thursday. & Nbsp;

Benin has yet to win a triumphant Nations Cup game in all three group matches before beating Morocco, which is very popular, with penalty shots in the round of 16 after the star Ajax's Hakim Ziyech missed a last minute penalty for Morocco.

The success of Benin comes from its solidity in the back. In the group stage, their conceded goals were the second lowest of the 24 teams (only Morocco was lower), and if two main attributes for knockout football are needed, then they are probably in defense and penalty.

Senegal had the most possession and the best pbad accuracy of the remaining teams in the tournament, but despite this, many of their best chances, including their goal and the missed penalty against Uganda, were caused by the possession of their opponents in high throw then attack with speed. Their dependence on Liverpool star Sadio Mane, who scored half of Senegal's goals so far, could be the cause of their loss. If Benin can silence him, they could create another surprise.

Nigeria v South Africa

These two former giants of African football may be about to make their comeback. Nigeria won the tournament in 2013, but failed to qualify for the two previous tournaments. The 90 years of South Africa are over and they failed to qualify in their last match.

South Africa finished third in its group with a lone victory over Namibia. Few people have given him a chance to compete with hosts and favorites, Egypt. But they had several worthy chances against the hosts before Orlando Pirates striker Thembinkosi Lorch, who made his first start of the tournament, scored the only goal of the match after an elegant counter-attack five minutes behind the team. place in the quarter-finals.

Egyptian head coach Javier Aguirre was fired just after the match, although Jose Mourinho blamed the mentality of the Egyptian players, not that of their coach, their lack of advanced pbades. & nbsp;

The Nigerian team has a lot of depth with stars like Alex Iwobi and Odion Ighalo, who scored three and had a goal from the competition, but Leganes defender Kenneth Omerou was one of the best. Both teams preferred to use their pace to participate in the counter-attack, although Nigeria reversed it in the middle of their match against Cameroon and seized the CAN champion with possession of the ball to give it Move of mercy.

Ivory Coast / Algeria

Algeria is the only team to have won all four matches so far. They scored nine goals without conceding any goals and beat Senegal in the group stage. Algeria likes to push the ball to key players Riyadhal of Manchester City and Adam Ounas of Napoli, and scored sublime goals with smooth pbades as his first match in his 3-0 win against Guinea. The quality of the Algerian attack means they do not need to dominate possession control to win and they like to use their wings more often than most teams.

Ivory Coast overtook Mali despite its numerical superiority during most of the match. They did not really set the tournament on fire and do not like to circulate it. They made the third smallest number of short pbades per game of all teams in the tournament and scored real goals from the first day, including their winner against Mali. quality with players like Wilfred Zaha who can hurt any team.

Madagascar v Tunisia & nbsp;

After defeating the Democratic Republic of Congo on penalties in the final round, the series of fairy tales in Madagascar has somehow justified the extension of the Nations Cup from 16 to 24 teams. The long journey from Madagascar to the quarterfinals started from the beginning preliminary qualification phases in early 2017, but their 2-0 win over Nigeria in the group stage shows they are not easy to take.

Madagascar has advanced in the FIFA rankings after being ranked among the lowest ranked teams on the continent, but it is still not in the top 100. Tunisia, by contrast, was the second highest ranked African team at the start of this tournament . so far, the knockout stages have made a mockery of this ranking. & nbsp;

Tunisia also relied on penalties to beat Ghana in the round of 16. Ghana scored 23 shots on goal during the match but failed to hit the goal. They had a second chance when Tunisian substitute Rami Bedoui showed Ghana how to score by heading to his own goal with his first touch.

Shots on goal are often decisive in tournaments and the head coach of Tunisia took a big risk in substituting his guardian just before the shooting, but the blow paid off as Tunisia won the 5-4 shootout. Like Benin, Tunisia reached this stage without winning a match in 90 minutes.

From the quarter-finals, video-badisted referees will be used during the tournament. If VAR had been used in the round of 32, this tie could have been very different with D.R. Congo and Ghana have controversial decisions against them. That said, based on mess that VAR did of the final of the African Champions League this year, it is almost guaranteed to spark controversy.

Many of the favorites are already out of competition, the last eight all have the opportunity to make their own story. & Nbsp;

The winners of Senegal against Benin will play in Madagascar or Tunisia during the first semifinal. Nigeria or South Africa will play Cote d 'Ivoire or Algeria in the second semifinal of the 2019 Nations Africa Cup.

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The African Cup of Nations will have some new faces in the semifinals this year, all semi-finalists of the 2017 tournament having already been eliminated. Only a few of the favorites remain, but the cursed Madagascar, which is in its first CAN finals, continues to surprise the continent. Here is an overview of the four CAN quarterfinal matches and how these teams have gone so far.

Senegal v Benin

Senegal are the best African team according to the FIFA ranking system, but they are one of only three remaining teams to have never won this tournament. Benin has also not won the CAN, but one of these two teams will be two games from its first African Cup of Nations trophy by Thursday.

Benin has yet to win a triumphant Nations Cup game in all three group matches before beating Morocco, which is very popular, with penalty shots in the round of 16 after the star Ajax's Hakim Ziyech missed a last minute penalty for Morocco.

The success of Benin comes from its solidity in the back. In the group stage, their conceded goals were the second lowest of the 24 teams (only Morocco was lower), and if two main attributes for knockout football are needed, then they are probably in defense and penalty.

Senegal had the most possession and the best pbad accuracy of the remaining teams in the tournament, but despite this, many of their best chances, including their goal and the missed penalty against Uganda, were caused by the possession of their opponents in high throw then attack with speed. Their dependence on Liverpool star Sadio Mane, who scored half of Senegal's goals so far, could be the cause of their loss. If Benin can silence him, they could create another surprise.

Nigeria v South Africa

These two former giants of African football may be about to make their comeback. Nigeria won the tournament in 2013, but failed to qualify for the two previous tournaments. The 90 years of South Africa are over and they failed to qualify in their last match.

South Africa finished third in its group with a lone victory over Namibia. Few people have given him a chance to compete with hosts and favorites, Egypt. But they had several worthy chances against the hosts before Orlando Pirates striker Thembinkosi Lorch, who made his first start of the tournament, scored the only goal of the match after an elegant counter-attack five minutes behind the team. place in the quarter-finals.

Egypt's head coach Javier Aguirre was sacked just after the match, although Jose Mourinho blamed the mentality of Egypt's players, not their coach, for their lack of progress.

The Nigerian team has a lot of depth with stars like Alex Iwobi and Odion Ighalo, who scored three and had a goal from the competition, but Leganes defender Kenneth Omerou was one of the best. Both teams preferred to use their pace to participate in the counter-attack, although Nigeria reversed it in the middle of their match against Cameroon and seized the CAN champion with possession of the ball to give it Move of mercy.

Ivory Coast / Algeria

Algeria is the only team to have won all four matches so far. They scored nine goals without conceding any goals and beat Senegal in the group stage. Algeria likes to push the ball to key players Riyadhal of Manchester City and Adam Ounas of Napoli, and scored sublime goals with smooth pbades as his first match in his 3-0 win against Guinea. The quality of the Algerian attack means they do not need to dominate possession control to win and they like to use their wings more often than most teams.

Ivory Coast overtook Mali despite its numerical superiority during most of the match. They did not really set the tournament on fire and do not like to circulate it. They made the third smallest number of short pbades per game of all teams in the tournament and scored real goals from the first day, including their winner against Mali. quality with players like Wilfred Zaha who can hurt any team.

Madagascar v Tunisia

After defeating the Democratic Republic of Congo on penalties in the final round, the series of fairy tales in Madagascar has somehow justified the extension of the Nations Cup from 16 to 24 teams. Madagascar's long journey to the quarter-finals started early in qualifying in early 2017, but their 2-0 win over Nigeria in the group stage shows they are not easy to take.

Madagascar has advanced in the FIFA rankings after being ranked among the lowest ranked teams on the continent, but it is still not in the top 100. Tunisia, by contrast, was the second highest ranked African team at the start of this tournament . the round of 16 have so far derided such a ranking.

Tunisia also relied on penalties to beat Ghana in the round of 16. Ghana scored 23 shots on goal during the match but failed to hit the goal. They had a second chance when Tunisian substitute Rami Bedoui showed Ghana how to score by heading to his own goal with his first touch.

Shots on goal are often decisive in tournaments and the head coach of Tunisia took a big risk by replacing his goalkeeper just before the shootout, but the blow paid off as Tunisia won the shootout at 5. -4. Like Benin, Tunisia reached this stage without winning a match in 90 minutes.

From the quarter-finals, video-badisted referees will be used during the tournament. If VAR had been used in the round of 32, this tie could have been very different with D.R. Congo and Ghana have controversial decisions against them. That said, given the mess that VAR has made the final of the African Champions League this year, it is almost certain to spark controversy.

With many favorites already out of competition, the last eight all have a chance to make their own story.

The winners of Senegal against Benin will play in Madagascar or Tunisia during the first semifinal. Nigeria or South Africa will play Cote d 'Ivoire or Algeria in the second semifinal of the 2019 Nations Africa Cup.