Nigeria and Egypt have qualified for the round of 16 after the final round of matches in the group stages of the AFCON 2021 in Group D.
Pulse Recap: Super Eagles end Guinea-Bissau's hope; Egypt joins Nigeria in the round of 16
Nigeria maintains a 100% record with an easy victory over Guinea-Bissau as round 3 continues
Super Eagles
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Pulse Recap takes you through all the actions as Nigeria and Egypt defeated Guinea-Bissau and Sudan respectively to book their spots in the knockout stages.
Umar, Troost-Ekong inspire Nigeria past Guinea-Bissau
Sadiq Umar scored on his first start for the Super Eagles as Nigeria comprehensively defeated Guinea-Bissau in their last group match.
interim boss, Augustine Eguavoen, made eight changes to his team but that didn't stop the Super Eagles from a third consecutive win for the first time since 2006, also under Eguavoen.
After a goalless start to the game, Nigeria finally took the lead when Kelechi Iheanacho's lovely outside-the-foot pass found Umar, who made no mistakes to finish from close range to put the Super Eagles 0-1 up in the 56th minute.
Sadiq Umar celebrates with Super Eagles teammates after scoring Nigeria's opener against Guinea-Bissau
Twitter/CAF
19 minutes later, Nigeria doubled its advantage through stand-in captain, William Troost-Ekong.
Moses Simon, who came on as a substitute, played a key role in Nigeria's second goal after dancing around Djurtus defenders before rattling the upright of the post with a fierce effort.
Troost-Ekong was perfectly positioned to tuck home the rebound, which was initially ruled off as offside by the assistant referee but the VAR overturned the decision after a long delay.
It ended in a deserved 2-0 win for the Eagles, who finished with a perfect record after a third win in three matches for the first time since 2006.
Egypt overcomes Jediane Falcons to join Nigeria
The Pharaohs of Egypt overcame their shaky start to book a spot in the Round of 16 after a narrow 1-0 defeat of Sudan in the other Group D match.
Mohamed Abdelmoniem was the unlikely hero for Egypt as he scored the decisive winner via a header ten minutes from time to seal victory for the Pharaohs.
Mohamed Abdelmoneim scored the winning goal for Egypt against Sudan (Twitter/CAF)
Pulse Nigeria
With the result, Egypt joined Nigeria's Super Eagles in the next round of the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON 2021.
Egypt's win also benefited other countries like Ivory Coast, Mali, Gambia, Malawi and Cape Verde, who have now all qualified for the knockout stage before their last group matches on Thursday.
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