Thanks to Bundesliga striker Sébastien Haller, hosts Ivory Coast reached the final of the Africa Cup of Nations. The 29-year-old professional footballer from Borussia Dortmund scored the decisive goal in the Ivorian team’s 1-0 (0-0) semi-final against the Democratic Republic of Congo with a direct shot in the 65th minute. Ivory Coast will now face Nigeria on Sunday.
The team around top star Victor Osimhen had previously beaten the previous surprise team South Africa 4-2 on penalties on Wednesday evening. After regular time, the score was 1-1 (0-0) after two penalty goals from Nigerian William Troost-Ekong (67th minute) and Teboho Mokoena (90th). In the subsequent extra time, both teams remained scoreless.
Qatar will face Jordan in the final
The Nigerians are in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since 2013. Two years later, Ivory Coast won their last continental championship title to date. At the home tournament, the hosts almost failed early with just one win in the preliminary round, but were able to improve in the knockout phase.
Meanwhile, hosts Qatar can continue to hope for a successful defense of their title at the Asian Cup. The emirate’s selection won the semi-finals against Iran on Wednesday somewhat happily with 3:2 (2:1) and will therefore face Jordan in the final on Saturday (4 p.m.), who had eliminated South Korea under coach Jürgen Klinsmann the day before.
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Almoez Ali scored the winning goal for Qatar in the 82nd minute. Previously, former Leverkusen player Sardar Azmoun (4th) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored from the penalty spot (51st) for Iran and Jassem Gaber (17th) and Akram Afif (43rd) for the hosts. The Iranian Shoja Khalilzadeh was shown a red card in stoppage time (90+3). Qatar won the Asian Cup for the first time in 2019. At the home World Cup in 2022, however, the team was eliminated in the preliminary round.