Defending champions, Ivory Coast, crash out of Africa Cup of Nations

The defending champions, Ivory Coast, have crashed out of the 2017 African Cup of Nations following their 1-0 loss in their final group game against Morocco on Tuesday night.

The Elephants just failed to live up to their pre-tournament ratings as they were unable to register any win in all their three group games.

The Atlas Lions of Morocco now handled by Herve Rernard secured a quarter final berth for the first time since 2004 with the hard-earned win over the Ivorians courtesy of the solitary strike from Rachid Alioui in the 64th minute.

This is the first time that Morocco will beat Ivory Coast in over two decades.

Interestingly, it was Coach Rernard that led Ivory Coast to win the 2015 AFCON and the French Coach is now looking to win his third title with Morocco having also won the continent’s top prize with Zambia.

In the other Group C encounter, DR Congo prevailed 3-1 against Togo to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals after finishing on top of the Group on Tuesday.

Junior Kabananga, Firmin Mubele Ndombe and Paul-Jose M’Poku were the goal scorers for DR Congo while Kodjo Laba got the only goal for Togo in Tuesday’s game.

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Tunde Eludini

Tunde Eludini is a graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria where he studied International Relations. He is a Senior Correspondent coordinating the sports section for PREMIUM TIMES. Twitter: @tundeyeludini

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