Guinea 0-1 Gambia: Barrow strike sends Scorpions through to Afcon quarter-finals

The Gambia have achieved another stunning result as captain Musa Barrow’s second-half strike got them through to the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals, winning 1-0 against Guinea in Bafoussam on Monday.

Barrow struck in the 71st minute to separate these two teams who were meeting for the first time at the Afcon finals.

For Gambia, this follows last week’s 1-0 upset of Tunisia, a result which earned them this passage to the last-eight.

In a dramatic ending to the contest, Gambia and Guinea ended the match with 10 men each following red cards to Yusupha Njie and Ibrahima Conte.

The Slyli Nationale went into the match without suspended skipper Naby Keita, leaving AS Roma midfielder Amadou Diawara to lead the team.

Abdoulie Jallow, the man who helped Gambia sink Tunisia with a stoppage-time strike after coming on from the bench was rewarded with a starting spot.

The two teams entered this match on the backdrop of contrasting fortunes in their last group games.

Guinea had lost to 2-1 Zimbabwe in their last group match while Gambia had stunned the Tunisians.

Few chances were witnessed in the first half, the first coming 10 minutes into the contest when 20-year-old Olympiakos midfielder Aguibou Camara’s free-kick for Guinea went just over the bar.

Two minutes later, Gambia captain Barrow forced a desperate save from Guinea goalkeeper Al Keita.

But the best chance of this opening period came on 37 minutes when Guinea’s Mohamed Bayo took time to control the ball inside the box to allow defenders to recover and block him before hitting a weak shot from the rebound.

Then the Scorpions almost went ahead in first-half injury-time but AS Roma’s Ebrima Darboe’s shot sailed just inches wide as the two teams went for the halftime break with a 50-50 percentage on ball-possession.

Some superb defending by Sampdoria's Omar Colley saw him denying Ilaix Moriba with a fine block inside the penalty box five minutes after the restart.

With 19 minutes to go, Barrow then thrust the Scorpions ahead, finishing off a Yusupha Bobb pass. It was the Bologna star’s second goal of the tournament.

Five minutes later, Guinea thought they had equalised but Ibrahima Conte’s headed effort was ruled to have been scored from an offside position.

The Scorpions were then reduced to 10 men when substitute Njie was red-carded with three minutes on the clock and lasted just 13 minutes on the pitch.

The Syli National tried to take advantage of their opponents' numerical disadvantage. They gave Gambia a real scare in stoppage time by hitting the post twice inside a minute.

Shortly after Conte had struck the woodwork, he was shown a red card and that deflated Guinea’s remaining hope.

Gambia will next meet the winner between Cameroon and Comoros who clash in later on Monday.