The final four teams at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) have officially been confirmed following an action-packed round of quarter-final fixtures over the weekend.
With the tournament now reaching its decisive stage, the battle for African football’s most prestigious international trophy is heating up.
Host nation Morocco will take on Nigeria in a blockbuster semi-final, as both sides look to book a place in the AFCON 2025 final in front of a passionate Moroccan crowd.
In the second semi-final, 2021 champions Senegal will face record winners Egypt, setting up another mouth-watering clash between two continental heavyweights. B
oth semi-final matches are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, January 14, with the highly anticipated AFCON 2025 final set to follow later in the week.
As the competition enters its final phase, Sports Talk takes a closer look at the performances of the eight quarter-finalists
Winners
Brahim Diaz makes strong statement for MVP
Real Madrid star Brahim Diaz continues to lead Morocco’s hunt for glory on home soil with his superb contribution. Diaz leads the scoring chart at AFCON 2025 with five goals in five matches.
His impact was evident against Cameroon in the quarter-final as he grabbed a goal in their 2-0 win on Friday.
Diaz’s consistent performances make him a strong contender for the tournament and he becomes the fourth player in score five goals in a single AFCON tournament.
Ashour & Salah at the centre of Egypt’s progress
Emam Ashour and Mohamed Salah took the centre stage as Egypt overcame Cote d’Ivoire in a five-goal thriller on Saturday.
Al Ahly’s Ashour bagged a brace of assists while Salah got an assist and the match-winning goal to boost the Pharaohs’ hopes of lifting a record eighth AFCON title.
Egypt was not the better team in terms of ball possession during the game, but they managed to take their chances whenever they attacked with Salah, Ashour and Omar Marmoush linking up so good.
Super Eagles show off attacking prowess
Nigeria, once again, showed their impressive attacking qualities with Victor Osimhen and Akor Adams scoring the goals in their 2-0 defeat of Algeria.
Ademola Lookman and Alex Iwobi played key roles in the attack with their creativity, movement and deft passes.
Thanks to their solid defensive set-up, the Super Eagles were relentless from start to finish in Marrakech which left Algeria with no shot on target during the match.
It was a similar situation against Mozambique in the round of 16 and it further proves Nigeria’s credentials for the AFCON title.
Losers
Diarra & Bissouma let Mali down
Costly individual errors were the major highlights of Mali’s elimination in the quarter-final.
Djigui Diarra’s blunder while trying to hold the ball, created the chance for Illiman Ndiaye to score the only goal of the match in the 27th minute.
Secondly, Yves Bissouma’s red card in the stoppage time of the first-half caged the Eagles as they were reduced to 10 men in their 1-0 loss to Senegal.
Algeria’s unconvincing display
Algeria was tactically and physically outplayed by Nigeria which was evident in the 2-0 loss – they failed to register a shot on target and did not win any aerial duel in the attack.
Key players like Riyad Mahrez, Ibrahim Maza and Mohammed Amoura failed to cause any threats in the game and they failed to win any duels against Calvin Bassey and Semi Ajayi.
Their only shot in the game came in the 84th minute when second-half substitute Baghdad Bounedjah fired his effort wide off target.
It was also a forgettable outing for goalkeeper Lucas Zidane who made a bizarre jump to stop Victor Osimhen’s first goal and his poor distribution led to the second goal.
