AFCON 2025: 10 Men, One City, Endless Drama - Eagles own Casablanca - Pulse of the Day

Casablanca will forever remember the night Mali refused to surrender, delivering an AFCON 2025 performance that has already entered tournament history as one of the competition's greatest fightbacks.

Casablanca is supposed to belong to cinema. To scripts, rehearsals, carefully planned endings. But on this night, football tore up the script.

Reduced to ten men, backs against the wall, the Eagles of Mali refused to fade quietly into the background. Instead, they turned one of Africa's grandest cities into a living, breathing stage and delivered a performance that will outlive the final scoreline.

The narrative seemed written in the 27th minute when Wayo Coulibaly saw red for a reckless challenge on Hannibal Mejbri. From that moment, the story felt familiar.

A setback. A warning. The kind of moment that usually decides games long before the final whistle. In Casablanca, it did the opposite. It ignited belief.

Down a man for over an hour, the Eagles did not retreat into survival mode. They reorganised, tightened their lines, and played with a clarity that suggested this was not about numbers, but conviction. Every tackle carried purpose. Every sprint felt personal. Every clearance sounded like a declaration: we are still here.

Tunisia pressed forward with the confidence of a side that knew mathematics was on their side. Wave after wave crashed against Mali's defensive wall.

Legs tired. Lungs burned. Yet the Eagles stood firm, with Djigui Diarra performing heroics between the posts that defied logic and gravity in equal measure.

The pressure finally told in the 88th minute. Elias Saad whipped in a dangerous cross from the left, and Firat Chaouat rose highest to power a header past Diarra. The Mohammed V Stadium erupted. Tunisia's bench spilled onto the touchline. Victory was two minutes away.

But moments of fear gave way to moments of courage. Deep into stoppage time, in the 96th minute, Yassine Meriah's outstretched arm met the ball inside the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot. Casablanca held its breath.

Lassine Sinayoko stepped forward, shoulders squared, knowing that history often remembers bravery more than perfection. He sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. His third goal of the tournament came when it mattered most. One all. Extra time beckoned.

The additional thirty minutes produced tension but few clear chances. Both sides, exhausted and wary, probed without penetrating. Penalty kicks would eventually decide it, the cruellest and fairest ending football knows.

One by one, the Eagles stepped forward. Three successful conversions. Tunisia managed only two. When the final kick sealed it, Casablanca fell silent, then surrendered to the truth unfolding before it.

Ten men had walked into a city built on stories and refused to be extras. They owned the night. They owned the moment. They owned Casablanca.

In tournaments, there are wins that advance you and wins that announce you. This was the latter.

Mali will now face Senegal in the quarter-finals, after the Teranga Lions secured a 3-1 victory over Sudan earlier in the day. For Tunisia, a tournament that promised much ends in heartbreak at the Mohammed V Stadium.

Casablanca may be for movies. But the Eagles just delivered a classic.