Mohamed Bayo broke the hearts of Equatorial Guinea on Sunday evening with just seconds left on the clock to snatch a late 1-0 victory for Guinea in a TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire Round of 16 clash played at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Ebimpe.
The Guinea derby had all the ingredients of a knockout encounter, with both sides having a go at each other from the onset.
Equatorial Guinea came into the clash with good momentum following their impressive first-place finish in a tough Group A consisting of Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria while Guinea snuck into the round of 16 as one of the four best third finishers of the group stages.
With both sides creating chances, a golden opportunity was presented to Equatorial Guinea just after the hour mark when Ivan Salvador was fouled in the box for the in-form Emilio Nsue to step up but saw his penalty denied by the woodwork to the relief of Guinea.
The missed penalty would have been a huge advantage to Equatorial Guinea who were a man-down following the sending off of Frederico Nchama.
With just a few seconds before the end of the ninety minutes, a swift build-up by Guinea concluded with Ibrahim Diakite sending a delightful ball into the area which was cleverly headed into the near post by Bayo to seal a place in the quarter-finals for the seventh time in 14 appearances.
