Africa Cup of Nations 2021 roundup - January 24

The next set of last 16 fixtures at the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday, with two plucky minnows battling to keep their continental dreams alive.

All eyes ahead of the two kick-offs were on Comoros, whose personnel problems threatened to wreck their day before it had begun.

Elsewhere, Gambia were out to cause another upset after beating Tunisia last week.

Here's a look at all the AFCON action from the day....

Guinea 0-1 Gambia

Gambia have continued to defy the odds in their first ever major tournament.

They are the ninth lowest ranked team in all of Africa and 150th in the world. Yet they cruised through the group stage with seven points and have now won their last 16 tie against a team ranked comfortably inside the world’s top 100.

There was no Naby Keita for Guinea, but Ilaix Moriba and Amadou Diawara were in their lineup.

Musa Barrow emerged the hero for Gambia, scoring the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute to put his country into the quarter-finals against the odds. They will now go on to face the hosts, who won their own last 16 tie against another minnow.

Cameroon 2-1 Comoros

Comoros couldn’t quite match the unexpected heroics of Gambia, but still came away from the game against Cameroon, and the tournament as a whole, with their heads held high.

The Indian Ocean island nation had never played at this level before 2021 and were beset by problems when all three of their goalkeepers were unavailable. It meant that defender Chaker Alhadhur started the game in goal, complete with a DIY kit that had his number stuck on with tape.

Things became even harder when Nadjim Abdou was sent off after just seven minutes and Comoros had to play almost all of the game with 10 players.

Cameroon struggled to even test the emergency goalkeeper for most of the game but got ahead midway through the first half through Karl Toko Ekambi. Vincent Aboubakar added some breathing room in the second half which proved very necessary when Youssouf M’Changama scored what could end up being the goal of the tournament from distance.

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