Ivory Coast touched the ball thirty-four times inside Tanzania’s box. Tanzania touched it six times inside theirs.
The match finished 1-2 and the scoreline does not say that.
N’Sira Ouédraogo opened the scoring in the 44th minute, set up by Inès Konan. Konan made it two from the penalty spot in the 68th. Diana Msewa scored Tanzania’s, also a penalty, in the 99th minute.
It was Tanzania’s only shot on target in the whole match.
Tanzania had five attempts. One of them came in the first half. And in those opening forty-five minutes they entered the Ivory Coast box once, against twenty-two visits the other way.
Najiati Idrisa made six saves, four of them before the interval. Her team-mates made thirty-eight clearances, against eleven by Ivory Coast.
Ivory Coast had fifteen attempts, seven on target, and generated 1.61 expected goals to 0.87. They won six corners; Tanzania won one.
The difference sat in the final third: Ivory Coast completed seventy passes there out of ninety-eight, Tanzania twenty-five out of sixty-seven.
Tanzania played without Hasnath Ubamba, suspended after her sending-off against Burkina Faso.
And they lost their captain after thirteen minutes. Opah Clement went off injured and Ester Mabanza came on, only to be substituted herself in the 85th. The forward played for Eibar until her contract expired on 30 June.
Ouédraogo has now had a hand in four Ivory Coast goals in three matches: she scored against Burkina Faso, set up both of Grâce Sery’s against South Africa and scored the first tonight.
Rebecca Elloh came off in the 66th, at the same time as Sery. The Valencia forward had opened the scoring from the spot on the group’s first matchday.
Ivory Coast finish top on seven points. They had not gone beyond the group stage for twelve years and had never played a quarter-final.
Tanzania go out on three points, level with Burkina Faso, who finish third on the head-to-head 2-1. The Twiga Stars had won the first match in their history on the opening day of this group.
On the other pitch, South Africa beat Burkina Faso 0-1 and will join Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
