A late penalty by Ryan Mendes guided Cape Verde into the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals following a 1-0 win over Mauritania at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan.

The game at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan was getting close to extra time when Cape Verde won a penalty kick. With just two minutes left in regulation, captain Mendes made the goal to break Mauritania’s defence.

The Blue Sharks then held on for 10 extra minutes to move on to play either Morocco or South Africa in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Yamoussoukro. The winners of that game will play the winner of the match between the last 16 teams on Tuesday.

The small island country in the Atlantic Ocean had made it out of their group twice out of three previous AFCONs, but they had never won a knockout match.

“We are proud of everything we have done up to now. We always tried to win the game and we thoroughly deserved the victory,” said Cape Verde coach Pedro ‘Bubista’ Brito, who believes his side can go further still in the tournament.

“We have our objective, which from day one has been to get to the semi-finals.

“We are one step away from that now and we are going to keep going, while obviously staying humble and respecting our opponents, but we believe. That is our focus and we are going to try and get there.”

Mauritania was hoping to keep up their good play in Ivory Coast. In their last group game, they beat Algeria to eliminate one of the continent’s powerhouses and won a Cup of Nations game for the first time in nine attempts.

Amir Abdou coached the tiny Comoros to the round of 16 in Cameroon two years ago, but his team won’t be going any further because they couldn’t score past Vozinha in goal.

“Unfortunately we have lost to a ridiculous goal, which showed our naivety,” said Abdou.

“But we will nevertheless take positives from this, from our run, and we will be back in a year’s time.”

Before the hour mark, Souleymane Anne was played into a great position inside the box, but he missed a great chance. The Chinguetti Lions will feel bad about that missed chance.

As the game went on, Cape Verde looked like the more likely team to score. Mendes almost scored with a header from a corner, but Mauritania goalkeeper Babacar Niasse saved it well.

Then they were given a penalty when Niasse brought down substitute Gilson Tavares Benchimol in the box after he had blocked a bad header back from Mauritania defender Yassin El Welly.

The Egyptian referee pointed to the spot, and Mendes, who plays for Fatih Karagumruk in Turkey, scored the penalty. It was his second goal of the tournament, and it made history for his country.

Photo by Ladjal Djaffar/BackpagePix