By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (August 15^th 2025)

Group D Matchday 4

Guinea and Algeria drew 1-1. Horoya AC’s Ismaël Camara took advantage of slack defending to put Guinea ahead after 61 minutes. Guinea, needing a win to stand any chance of reaching the quarter-finals held on until there were just two minutes of normal time remaining. Sofiane Bayazid equalised within the last ten minutes of the match. The result eliminated Guinea – their coach Soulemayne Camara apologised to his nation for failing to advance to the knock out phase.

In the other Group C match Niger earned a hard-fought for point by holding South Africa to a 0-0 draw at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala. Moroccan referee, Bouchra Karboubi brandished four yellow cards to Bafana Bafana players. Niger thwarted South Africa with obdurate defending as they targeted and obtained a point. These results favour co-hosts Uganda who did not play today, but still top Group C by one point from Algeria and South Africa. The Desert Foxes are in second place on five points on goal difference, leaving everything to play for in the final matches of Group C – Algeria v Niger and Uganda v South Africa on August 18^th, although Algeria has to acclimatise to Kenyan conditions after playing all their previous matches in Uganda.