AFCON 2025 Semifinals: It’s a battle between West Africans and North Africans

By: Bernard Nyankomago Kwasi

From all indications, the semifinal matches of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) are going to be uncompromising and cagey.

The upcoming fictures have been termed by most football pundits as a battle between West Africans and North Africans.

Others also believe it is a crash between former players who have now turned into coaches. All shows the importance and seriousness that Africans and the world in general have attached to the games.

Coach Pape Thiaw will lead the Senegalese against Coach Hossam Hassan’s Pharoahs of Egypt in the first semifinals game on Wednesday, 14th January, 2026 at exactly 5pm local time.

The subsequent semifinals encounter will be between Coach Eric Chelle’s Super Eagles of Nigeria and Coach Walid Regragui’s Moroccan side at 8pm that same day.

Senegal eliminated Mali at the quarter finals beating them 1-0. The Pharaoh’s of Egypt also triumphed over defending champions Ivory Coast 3-2 at quarter finals.

The host nations, Morocco beat Cameroon 2-0 while Nigeria also inflicted a 2-0 defeat on Algeria at the quarter finals.

Now the stage is set for the big games before the grand finale. Interestingly, all the semifinal teams are former AFCON champions.

Egypt have won the AFCON seven times in 1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 and for the last time in 2010.

Their semifinal counterparts, Senegal have been AFCON champions only once in 2021.

Nigeria have won the competition thrice in 1980, 1994 and for the third time in 2013 under the late Coach Stephen Keshie.

The host nations Morocco were AFCON winners in 1976 and they are hoping to make it twice on their home soil as Ivory Coast did last two years.