Defending Champions Senegal Crash Out Of AFCON

The former Barcelona midfielder, Kessie was the shootout hero again, converting the decisive kick to send The Elephants to the quarter-finals.

A humiliating 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea last Monday did not dampen support for the host nation with supporters queueing from the middle of the night to buy tickets in the central city.

French coach Jean-Louis Gasset was fired after the record home loss and, after failing in an attempt to bring back former coach Herve Renard, the Elephants promoted assistant Emerse Fae.

The West African showdown pitted the most and least impressive of the 16 qualifiers from the group stage against each other.

Senegal comfortably beat the Gambia, Cameroon, and Guinea to top Group D, and were the only section winners to progress having secured a maximum of nine points.

Ivory Coast managed only three points after also losing to Nigeria and had a minus-three goal difference but still squeezed through as the last of the four best third-placed countries.

Fae made five changes to the team that kicked off against Equatorial Guinea, promoting Serge Aurier, Odilon Kossounou, Jean Michael Seri, Max-Alain Gradel, and Jean-Philippe Krasso.