Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal to give Egypt a narrow 3-2 Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final victory against Ivory Coastwhile strikes from Victor Osimhen and Akor Adams delivered Nigeria a deserved 2-0 victory over Algeria.
Omar Marmoush struck Egypt’s opener and Salah scored the decisive goal as they ended Ivory Coast’s reign, with defender Rami Rabia also on the scoresheet. The Egyptians had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on to book a semi-final with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Nigeria, who have reached the last four 17 times in the last 20 tournaments they have qualified for, will take on Morocco in Rabat in the semi-finals on Wednesday after their win over Algeria.
Osimhen steered home a long cross from the left by Bruno Onyemaechi two minutes into the second half as Algeria’s goalkeeper Luca Zidane made a bizarre jump to try to stop the effort but ended up getting his angles wrong and conceding an easy goal.
Adams increased Nigeria’s lead 10 minutes later as Osimhen unselfishly fed him the ball and he took it round Zidane before placing it into an empty net. It was an impressive performance by Nigeria, who missed out on World Cup qualification two months ago, as they overwhelmed their opponents from the start at the Grand Stade de Marrakech. Nigeria looked more determined, quicker around the field and stronger in the challenges, denying their opponents a single scoring chance.
Algeria had been forced to play extra time before winning their last-16 clash against the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday and the exertion could have been the reason many of their key players turned in listless performances. In contrast, Nigeria had a comfortable 4-0 win over Mozambique on Monday.
