Image source: Alamy Stock Photo
2025 Africa Cup of Nations
Quarter-finals
Mali v Senegal
Tangier Grand Stadium
Tangier, Morocco
Friday, 9 January 2026
Kick-off is at 18h00
A West African derby pits Mali against neighbours Senegal in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals at the Tangier Grand Stadium on Friday, January 9.
It has been a hard slog for the Eagles to get to this stage of the tournament in Morocco after they drew their opening four matches and needed penalties to get past Tunisia in the round of 16.
Tom Saintfiet's side finished runners-up in Group A behind the hosts, having picked up just three points following three successive draws against Zambia (1-1), the Atlas Lions (1-1) and Comoros (0-0).
Mali then came out on top in a shootout against the Eagles of Carthage in the first knockout round, winning 3-2 after a 1-1 stalemate at the end of 120 minutes of football.
Image source: Alamy Stock Photo
The Lions of Teranga look serious title contenders after scoring the second highest amount of goals at the continental showpiece after Nigeria (12).
Pape Thiaw's side dispatched both Botswana and Benin 3-0 in the group stages, although they were quite at their best in a 1-1 draw with DR Congo.
However, the AFCON 2021 champions showed their fighting spirit when they came back from an early goal down to beat Sudan 3-1 in the round of 16.
Image source: Alamy Stock Photo
Thiaw admitted he still has some things to work on with his players on the training ground to correct the mistakes they made against the Falcons of Jediane before facing their regional rivals.
"We played against this very disciplined Sudan team and they showed that they got to the stage by merit. We needed to dig deep to come from a goal down to be able to win the match," he said.
"I give credit to my players for the way they focused on the game and recovered to win the match. Now we will focus on the next match by correcting some of the mistakes we noted in this game and pursue our goals with intensity."
Head-to-Head: (Last Five Matches)
Matches - 5
Mali wins - 0
Senegal wins - 4
Draws - 1
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