![\"Calvin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0023ad3b-614.jpg\"\/)
\nNigeria guaranteed their last-16 spot this evening<\/p>\n
Sadio Mane scored for Senegal as they came from \u2060behind to draw 1-1 with the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday and keep top place \u200din Group D at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco.<\/p>\n
Cedric Bakambu put the Congolese into the lead in the 61st minute but Mane equalised eight minutes later with his 51st goal for his country, one of the favourites \u2060to win the tournament.<\/p>\n
The two countries both have four \u2060points from their opening two games and look set to progress \u2060comfortably \u200dinto \u2060the last 16 with a final group game to come \u200dfor each on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Senegal \u2060are ahead of DR Congo on goal difference in the standings after they beat Botswana 3-0 in their opening fixture on \u200dMonday while DR Congo edged past Benin 1-0 the same day.<\/p>\n
In the group’s other game, Yohan Roche scored a deflected winner as Benin claimed a first \u2060ever victory at the tournament with a 1-0 success against \u200dBotswana in Rabat.<\/p>\n
Benin took the lead \u2060in the 28th minute when Roche played a one-two \u2060in the box with captain Steve Mounie and his shot from 10 \u2060yards \u200dtook \u2060a wicked deflection off a defender and into the \u200dnet.<\/p>\n
Benin finally celebrated a victory at \u2060the continental finals at the 16th attempt following their debut in 2004, and despite the fact they were quarter-finalists in \u200d2019. They also have five draws to go with 10 defeats.<\/p>\n
\nNigeria guaranteed their last-16 spot this evening<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Group C, Nigeria put on an impressive display of attacking prowess but had to hang on in the end for a narrow 3-2 win over Tunisia , becoming the second team to make sure of a place in the last 16.<\/p>\n
Victor Osimhen opened the scoring a minute before halftime and captain Wilfred Ndidi and Ademola Lookman added two more after the break.<\/p>\n
But Tunisia staged a late comeback with goals from defenders Montassar Talbi and Ali Abdi that set up a frenetic finish.<\/p>\n
It was Nigeria’s second win in Group C and ensures they will top the standings, even with one first-round fixture still to play.<\/p>\n
In the other game in the group, Uche Ikpeazu scored a late equaliser before teammate Allan Okello missed a penalty as Uganda had to settle for a 1-1 draw with East African rivals Tanzania.<\/p>\n
It is a first point for both sides in their pool after they opened their 2025 campaign with defeats against Tunisia and Nigeria, respectively.<\/p>\n
Tanzania took the lead in the 59th minute when Simon Msuva converted a penalty following a handball in the box, but they were to be denied a first-ever win at the continental finals at the 11th attempt.<\/p>\n
Ikpeazu’s diving header drew Uganda level, before they were awarded a penalty and the chance to win it late on, only for talisman Okello to put his spot kick over the crossbar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sadio Mane scored for Senegal as they came from \u2060behind to draw 1-1 with the Democratic Republic of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-213934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}