RABAT: Algeria on Sunday became the third country after Egypt and Nigeria to qualify for the knockout stage of the Africa Cup of Nations by edging Burkina Faso 1-0 in Rabat through a Riyad Mahrez penalty.

Defending champions Ivory Coast failed to join the trio after drawing 1-1 with Cameroon in a lively Marrakesh showdown.

Elsewhere, Sudan got back into contention for a last-16 slot by beating Equatorial Guinea 1-0 in Casablanca.

Captain Mahrez converted from the spot midway through the first half and Algeria then held on to win a bruising contest against a determined Burkinabe outfit.

The penalty that decided the game was awarded when Manchester City’s Rayan Ait-Nouri was bundled over.

Mahrez made no mistake with his 23rd-minute kick as he followed his brace in the opening 3-0 defeat of Sudan to take his tally at this AFCON to three goals.

The former Leicester City and Manchester City winger now has nine goals at the tournament, an Algerian record.

Algeria, African champions in 1990 and in 2019, have the maximum six points after two games in Group ‘E’ and are yet to concede a goal, with Vladimir Petkovic’s side living up to their billing as one of the pre-tournament favourites.

France legend Zinedine Zidane was among the 18,522 crowd to watch his son Luca play in goal for the Desert Foxes — he was also at the win over Sudan.

“We were expecting a very tough match. We fought very hard and the most important thing is that we won the game. Now we are qualified and that was the main goal,” said Algeria forward Ibrahim Maza, the man of the match.

“We knew before that they would be very tough but we said we would have to fight against it, also be dirty, tackle very hard and we did that well today.”

Sudan boosted their chances of qualifying from the same group after a Saul Coco own goal gave them victory over Equatorial Guinea in a scrappy affair.

Unlucky Torino centre-back Coco saw the ball come off him and ricochet into the net in the 74th minute when his teammate Luis Asue attempted to clear a free-kick.

Sudan hosted and won the 1970 AFCON, but this was just their second victory in 18 matches across six tournament appearances since.

Sudan are competing in Morocco despite the country having been devastated since a civil war broke out between the army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023.

In Group ‘F’, Manchester United winger Amad Diallo scored for AFCON defending champions Ivory Coast in a draw with Cameroon that left them sharing top spot.

Diallo struck after 51 minutes for his second AFCON goal having notched the match-winner against Mozambique four days ago.

But the lead lasted only five minutes before a shot from Junior Tchamadeu took a deflection off Ghislain Konan to bring five-time champions Cameroon level.

Ivory Coast and Cameroon have four points each, one more than Mozambique.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2025