Ivory Coast moved one step closer to defending their Africa Cup of Nations crown after a convincing 3-0 victory over Burkina Faso in the Round of 16. Played at the Stade de Marrakech in Morocco, the win saw the Elephants become the first defending champions since Egypt in 2010 to reach the AFCON quarter-finals.
Coming into the match, Ivory Coast were full of belief after an unbeaten group stage and strong momentum, a theme already highlighted by SoftFootball ahead of the contest. From early on, Ivory Coast looked sharper and more direct.
Burkina Faso did register the first shot on target through Saidou Simpore, but that effort only seemed to wake the champions up. Amad Diallo soon began to cause serious problems, and in the 20th minute, he broke the deadlock after Evann Guessand powered past Adamo Nagalo and slipped him in.
