Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

The Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal will come to an end tonight with a match against Burkina Faso and Mali on Tuesday, January 30, 2024.

The competition has not been short in terms of upsets and entertainment, and as it moves closer to its ultimate stage, more fanfare looks promising.

Burkina Faso and Mali will meet at Korhogo’s Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium, with the winner joining the rest who have progressed.

The Stallions opened the tournament with a 1-0 win over Mauritania before they followed it with a 2-2 draw against Algeria.

They lost their final group match against Angola when they went 2-0 down, but that was not a blow since four points were enough for them to progress to the knockout phase.

Mali, on the other hand, saw off Bafana Bafana of South Africa 2-0 in their opening game before a 1-1 draw against Tunisia and concluded the preliminary round with a 0-0 draw against Namibia.

What are the stats saying?

Both Burkina Faso and Mali are making their 13th AFCON appearance, and they have lost an AFCON final.

In their previous 12 appearances, Burkina Faso have either been eliminated in the group stages eight times or at least reached the semi-finals four times, including the final defeat in 2013 (0-1 Nigeria), according to CAFOnline.

This is Mali’s 13th appearance and 9th in a row. No team has ever played as many games as Mali (54) at AFCON without ever winning the trophy. Their best performance dates back to 1972, when they lost 3-2 in the final against Congo.