Senegal went ahead inside four minutes through Habib Diallo, but Ivory Coast pushed for an equaliser in the second half and had a great chance when former Arsenal flop Nicolas Pepe was brought down in the 83rd minute.
The referee waved away Ivory Coast’s appeals for a penalty and even booked Pepe for diving. It looked an extremely harsh call on Pepe, and replays immediately showed the referee had got it badly wrong.
Thankfully, VAR was on hand to tell the official to go and check his pitchside monitor, and the penalty was finally awarded. Franck Kessie stepped up and converted the penalty to take the game into extra time.
After the teams could not be separated following extra time, it was Ivory Coast who triumphed on penalties to end Senegal’s dream of defending the title they won two years ago.
Senegal’s Moussa Niakhate was the only player to miss a spot-kick, as Ivory Coast held their nerve to book their place in the quarter-finals.
After scoring from the spot in normal time, Kessie stepped up again to net the decisive penalty in the shootout, firing his effort into the roof of the net to spark wild celebrations in Yamoussoukro.
It was a remarkable win for Ivory Coast after they suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat by Equatorial Guinea in their final group game and looked to be heading out of the competition, only to qualify as one of the best third-placed teams.
Now they are into the quarter-finals, and will face either Mali or Burkina Faso on Saturday.
