AFCON 2025: Knockout Rounds Begin With Sudan Carrying East Africa’s Hopes

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finally gets to the knockout stages with two Round of 16 matches lined up on Saturday.

East Africa is well represented by Sudan and Tanzania in the knockout rounds and the Sudanese have a tough task against Senegal while Tunisia take on Mali also on Saturday.

Sudan made it to the knockout rounds as one of the third best losers after winning one match and losing two and will need to be at their best to stop Senegal who have a star-studded team that includes Nicolas Jackson, Sadio Mane, Kalidou Koulibaly and Illman Ndiaye among others.

This is just their second appearance in the knockout rounds since winning AFCON in 1970 but they come into the game counting on their strong mentality and never say die attitude.

History, however, suggests Senegal are heavy favourites as they have never lost to Sudan in all their seven meetings, having won five while two ended in draws. In fact, Sudan have only scored one goal past Senegal in all those matchups.

Meanwhile, the other Round of 16 match of the day will pit Mali up against Tunisia in an interesting game that brings together two teams with distinctive styles in Casablanca.

Mali made it to the knockout rounds with three straight draws while Tunisia won one and drew another, showing some of their strengths and weaknesses.

Historically, Mali and Tunisia have an almost even record with the West Africans winning four, two victories going to the North Africans, while three games ended in a draw.

Their last meeting was at AFCON 2023 when they played out a 1-1 draw.