Fans of the African game can brace themselves for an even more exciting race to the ongoing TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria as the ongoing competition for home-based players now enters the exciting knock-out stages.
With the surprise exit of the reigning champions Libya, this edition of the tournament is guaranteed to crown a new champion at the Nelson Mandela Stadium on Saturday, 4 February.
Libya's exit has in hindsight demonstrated the unpredictable nature of the TotalEnergies CHAN tournament, which has seen a number of upsets and surprise exits from some of the tournament favourites.
With the backing of the highly vocal home supporters, tournament hosts, Algeria have done exceptionally well in their group stages with a clean sweep of results that saw them amass maximum points in all their group matches to finish top of Group A.
The Foxes' impressive run in Algiers has also been coupled with the warm reception of the people of Algeria in all four host cities, who have come out in their numbers to show appreciation to the African game.
Algeria now faces a stern test against Cote D'Ivoire who had a bag of mixed results in their Group B campaign but did enough to finish second and set up the first quarter-final fixture of the tournament against the hosts in Algiers on Friday.
The Elephants suffered a 1-0 defeat to Senegal in their opening match which was followed by a worrisome 0-0 sharing of the spoils against DR Congo in their second match before finally getting the 3-1 win over Uganda to finish second in Group B.
Pepe Thiaw's Senegalese side suffered a slight banana skid after winning their opening match against Cote D'Ivoire when a surprise loss to Uganda forced them to regroup before their clash with DR Congo, where a 3-0 victory saw them roar into the knockouts.
The Teranga Lions face a tricky test against Mauritania who stunned their Group D opponents to finish top of the group ahead of Angola and Mali.
Senegal will have to pay careful attention to the dangerous Mamadou Sy who stunned Mali in their final group match with his solitary strike to send the Malians packing as Mauritania finished at the summit.
An exciting Southern African battle looms in the third quarter-final fixture, as tournament surprise packages Madagascar, who surprisingly brushed aside Ghana and Sudan to finish top of Group D take on their COSAFA region neighbors, Mozambique in what promises to be a thrilling encounter on Saturday.
With Madagascar finishing top of Group D, they come into the clash as surprise favourites, while The Mambas, who just like their opponents are in their first ever CAF competition quarter-final match and are eager to go all the way under the tutelage of the tactically astute, Francisco Conte.
The final round of quarter-final ties sees another surprise package Niger, who finished top of group E after holding Congo to a 0-0 stalemate and shocking Cameroon to a 1-0 defeat facing up against Annor Walker's Ghana in Oran.
The Galaxies had a jittery start to their campaign after a 2-1 defeat to Madagascar - a result that forced them to quickly regroup and put up a much-improved performance against Sudan with a 3-1 victory that saw them scrape through to the knock-out stage.
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TotalEnergies (CHAN) quarter-final fixtures:
Friday, 27 January 2023
Algeria vs Cote D'Ivoire | 17H00 GMT | Nelson Mandela Stadium, Baraki
Senegal vs Mauritania | 20H00 GMT | 19 May 1956 Stadium, Annaba
Saturday, 28 January 2023
Madagascar vs Mozambique | 17H00 GMT | Stade Chahid Hamlaoui, Constantine
Niger vs Ghana | 20H00 | Miloud Hadefi Stadium, Oran
