AFCON 2025 takeaways: Nigeria, Egypt shine in quarterfinal round

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations is entering its final stage.

Twenty-four of the continent's finest teams entered the competitions during the holiday season, but only four—Senegal, Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco—remain.

Here are the biggest and best stories from AFCON's action-packed quarterfinal round:

Egypt reminds the world why it's the winningest team in Africa

No nation has won more AFCON titles than Egypt. The Pharaohs have won a total of seven trophies, with the most recent victory coming in 2010. It's an impressive haul, but not one that anyone in Africa wants to see grow. Especially not Ivory Coast coach Emerse Faé. 

Faé has some AFCON history with Egypt. In 2006, he was part of the Ivory Coast team that faced Egypt in the tournament final...and lost on penalties after a tense, closely-fought game. It was a heartbreaking result for the Ivory Coast and one that still lives large in the nation's memory.

When Faé's Ivory Coast got drawn against Egypt for this AFCON 2025 quarterfinal, it felt like a chance to rewrite that story...but Egypt had other plans. The match was close, but the Pharaohs took it 3-2 on the back of another Mohamed Salah counterattacking goal.

Does the continent want Egypt to win another AFCON title? No, certainly not. But performances like this one against passionate, competent opponents like the Ivory Coast prove that Egypt winning its eighth title is a question of when, not if. Egypt beat Cote D'Ivoire 3-2

Nigeria forgives and forgets

Nigeria's Super Eagles exited their Round of 16 match in a cloud of controversy after striker Victor Osimhen lost his temper with his attacking teammates. Conflicting reports about the state of Nigeria's dressing room raged after the final whistle. Was Osimhen really, truly fed up with the likes of Akor Adams and Ademola Lookman? Or was it all just a heated misunderstanding?

Nigeria's quarterfinal against Algeria confirmed it was the latter. Osimhen, Lookman and Adams played brilliantly, and together, they led Nigeria to its best team performance of 2025. Algeria couldn't get anywhere near them. Nigeria beat Algeria 2-0