Two giants of African football -- Senegal and Cameroon -- clash swords in the quarterfinals of Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2017 on Saturday. With Algeria and defending champions Ivory Coast eliminated from the tournament, there's a major chance either Senegal or Cameroon could at least make it to the grand finale.
Saturday's second quarter finals match takes place at the Stade de Franceville in Gabon.
Senegal have some of the best Premier League players at the moment -- from Liverpool's Sadio Mane to West Ham's Cheikhou Kouyaté. Are they the favourites already? They have never won the Africa Cup of Nations, but will the undefeated record in the group stages help them this time?
"How can we be favourites when you have the likes of Ghana, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo still in contention?" argued Senegal coach Aliou Cisse, as per BBC. "Ghana were finalists in the last tournament, Morocco have impressed and DR Congo exhibit tremendous potential.
"For me, reaching the quarter-finals was a huge relief as Senegal have not been to the knockout stage since 2006 in Egypt. Our first goal was to qualify from the mini-league and the boys did that. Congratulations to them."
Cameroon, meanwhile, are four-time winners of the African football tournament and could pose a major threat to Senegal or the other quarterfinalists. The Cameroon football team had defeated Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations 2002 final! Can history repeat?
No notable players dominate the Cameroon squad now. The legends like Rigobert Song and Samuel Eto'o have called it a day, while Marc-Vivien Foe met an unfortunate end to his life.
"We have young players hungry to play and keen to win," said Cameroon's Belgian coach Hugo Broos. "Now that we have reached the quarter-finals, anything can happen."
Match schedule
Date: January 28
Time: 7pm GMT (12:30 am IST [Sunday])
Venue: Stade de Franceville
Where to watch live
India: No telecast
UK: TV - EuroSport 1. Live streaming - EuroSport Player.
Cameroon, Senegal: TV: SuperSport 6 Africa, SuperSport 9. Live Streaming: SuperSport live video.
US: TV: beIN Sports. Live Streaming: beIN Sports Connect.
Live score: Twitter.
