dBundesliga striker Sébastien Haller welcomes the host Ivory Coast He reached the final of the African Cup of Nations. The 29-year-old Borussia Dortmund professional footballer scored the decisive goal in the Ivorian team's 1-0 (0-0) semi-final against the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a direct shot in the 65th minute. Ivory Coast will now face Nigeria on Sunday.
The team formed by star Victor Osimhen had already beaten the previous surprise, South Africa, 4-2 on penalties on Wednesday night. After regulation time, the score was 1-1 (0-0) after two penalty goals from the Nigerian William Troost-Ekong (67th minute) and Teboho Mokoena (90th minute). In the following overtime both teams were left goalless.
Qatar will face Jordan in the final
Nigerians are in the final for the first time since 2013 African Cups. Two years later, Ivory Coast won its last continental championship title to date. In the home tournament, the hosts almost failed early with only one victory in the preliminary round, but were able to improve in the knockout phase.
Meanwhile, hosts Qatar can continue to hope for a successful Asian Cup title defense. The Emirati team won the semi-finals against Iran on Wednesday quite comfortably by 3:2 (2:1), so they will score on Saturday (4:00 p.m.). game over on Jordan, which the day before had eliminated South Korea with coach Jürgen Klinsmann.
Almoez Ali scored the winning goal Qatar in the 82nd minute. Previously, former Leverkusen player Sardar Azmoun (4th) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored from a penalty (51st) for Iran and Jassem Gaber (17th) and Akram Afif (43rd) for the hosts. Iranian Shoja Khalilzadeh saw the red card in added time (90+3). Qatar won the Asian Cup for the first time in 2019. However, in the 2022 World Cup at home the team was eliminated in the preliminary round.