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No upset here, as two time Africa Cup of Nations champions, Ivory Coast, overcome an energetic challenge from Les Aigles of Mali.
The Elephants were poked and prodded all the way to the finish line, with the youthful Malian side outplaying their more illustrious opponents for much of the game. The Eagles had most of the possession, with a total of 60 percent of ball retention going to Mali.
On the shots count, Mali also trumped the Elephants, as they had a total of 18 shots, in comparison to Ivory Coast's meager count of 7.
However, Ivory Coast came out tops when it came to the most important stat. Wilfried Zaha's 76th-minute goal was the crucial difference between both sides, as he latched onto a Sylvian Gbohouo free-kick before confidently dispatching the ball beyond the keeper's reach.
In this article, we try to make sense of Ivory Coast's victory over Mali's Les Aigles.
#3 A clinical finish
Let's get the most obvious bit out of the way first.
The Elephants of Ivory Coast may be in the quarterfinals, but they certainly have not been very convincing so far. They were totally outplayed by a less fancied Les Aigles side for much of the game, as they had to withstand wave after wave of Malian barrage.
In the first 45 minutes, the Elephant's didn't trouble Mali's Djigui Diarra in goal. The likes of Wilfried Zaha and Nicolas Pepe were largely subdued throughout the encounter, and with the few chances that came their way, they had to be clinical.
Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha did just that in the 76th minute. The Elephants of Ivory Coast won a free kick in their own half, and Sylvian Gbohouo was on hand to take the set-piece.
A free-kick from deep plus a fortunate bounce later, and Wilfried Zaha found himself in no man's land with just the Malian goalkeeper to beat, and all he had to do was coolly poke the ball past the keeper.
Zaha's goal was the difference in a game dominated by the young Malian side.
#2 Wasted opportunities
The Eagles of Mali were largely in control of the game, but despite having the lion share of possession as well as dominating the shot count, they failed to do the needful - score.
The purpose of the game is to put the ball in the net, but the Malians seemed to be oblivious of that fact. With a total of 18 shots, they only managed to hit the target a paltry 4 times. The likes of Moussa Marega and Moussa Djanepo failed to hit the target, even on occasions when they were well placed.
Mistakes like those are more often than not costly, especially in the knockout phase where there are no second chances.
#1 Inexperience
With all said and done, we can perhaps attribute Mali's round of 16 ouster to inexperience. With an average age of 24.3 years, Mali boasted of the second youngest side at this year's African showpiece.
With a whopping 18 shots on target and an impressive 60 percent possession, they were only able to threaten the keeper directly on 4 occasions. That was poor, especially as most of their chances seemed far easier to put in the net than miss.
This is not saying they were too young to progress to the last eight, but rather, with a little more composure they could have found the back of the net severally against the Elephants of Ivory Coast.
