Guinea Bissau 0 Burkina Faso 2: Chelsea loanee Bertrand Traore fires the Stallions into AFCON last eight

On target: Traore scores Burkina Faso's second
AFP/Getty Images
Standard Sport22 January 2017

Burkina Faso advanced to the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup as Group A winners following a 2-0 win over Guinea Bissau, who are eliminated from the tournament.

The 2013 runners-up were guaranteed a place in the knockout phase if they came away from the Stade de Franceville with a victory, which they secured thanks to an own goal from Rudinilson and a Bertrand Traore strike.

Traore should have opened the scoring for the Stallions in the eighth minute when he raced through with only goalkeeper Jonas Mendes to beat but the Chelsea forward, on loan at Ajax, curled his left-footed effort just wide of the far post.

But they only had to wait four more minutes for their side to break the deadlock as Traore's chipped through ball was not dealt with properly by the Guinea Bissau defence and centre-back Rudinilson could only head past the on-rushing Mendes and into his own net.

That sparked a response from Guinea Bissau as they broke downfield with Zezinho playing Nanissio into the area, but his powerful shot towards the bottom left corner was superbly turned around the post by Kouakou Herve Koffi.

Djurtus came out of the second half in need of an equaliser but spurned two good opportunities with Francisco Junior having a shot blocked from six-yards out before Silva headed wide from close range from the resulting Zezinho corner.

Africa Cup of Nations 2017 - In pictures

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Burkina Faso punished Guinea Bissau's inability to find the target with a quick counter which resulted in Traore finding the bottom left corner with a composed finish to double his side's advantage just before the hour mark.

Zezinho nearly halved the deficit when his 30-yard free-kick crashed off the crossbar while Lassana Camara also went close with an effort which he dragged wide from 15 yards.

Traore nearly added a third for the Stallions but his effort drifted just wide and Silva blazed over late on as the Stallions took the three points to remain unbeaten in the competition.

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