AFCON Last-16 Starts 3rd January: Eight Fixtures Known, Bracket Drama Continues New Year’s Eve
By TAYO TAIWO (T. T.) OLUWOLE
AFCON 2025 is now counting down to knockout football, with eight nations already discovering their Round of 16 opponents ahead of matches set to kick off from 3 January 2026.
Morocco will take on Tanzania, a fixture that puts the hosts’ attacking depth against East African resistance. Mali face Tunisia in a midfield-driven contest, while Algeria meet DR Congo in a clash defined by physical endurance and tactical pace control. Egypt, one of the most experienced knockout sides on the continent, will battle Benin, whose qualification momentum has become one of the tournament’s biggest narratives.
Across the groups, Morocco and Mali progressed from A, Egypt and South Africa emerged from B, while Nigeria, Tunisia and Tanzania qualified from C in one of AFCON’s rare three-qualifier group outcomes. Group D confirmed Senegal, DR Congo and Benin, while Groups E and F pushed Algeria, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Mozambique into the qualification mix, though final rankings remain open.
The group-stage window closes on 31 December 2025, after which the remaining eight teams will learn their own last-16 rivals. With only half the bracket locked, AFCON 2025 is heading into the New Year with unresolved match-ups, rising fitness-load conversations, and Africa-wide anticipation for the final knockout pairings that will close the tournament’s most unpredictable group-stage chapter in recent history.
