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 2023 AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS 

SAN-PEDRO - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) beat Egypt 8-7 on penalties to knock the record seven-time champions out of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in the last 16 on Sunday in Ivory Coast's city of San-Pédro.

The encounter was pushed to the penalties after finishing 1-1 at the end of extra time.

Goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi scored the decisive penalty for the Congolese after his opposite, Mohamed Qotb Abou Gabal Ali — also known as Gabaski — saw his penalty strike the bar on its way over.

Mpasi then stepped forward to send Gabaski the wrong way to spark celebrations of triumph in the DR Congo camp and wherever the Congolese supporters were following the nervy encounter from — both those inside the stadium in San-Pédro and beyond.

DR Congo, an East African Community (EAC) member state, will face Guinea in the quarter-finals.

Guinea knocked Equatorial Guinea out of the tournament in a 1-0 result earlier on Sunday in a game that had a red card — Equatoguinean Federico Bikoro the man sent off.

The outcome of Sunday's second game means Liverpool forward and Egypt's talisman Mohamed Salah's dreams of recovering from injury to lift the trophy with his national team were dashed.

Ten-man Egypt held on to push the game to penalties

But DR Congo came out on top after a tense set of penalties

Goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi scored the winning penalty

In the tense round of 16 clash in San-Pédro, which kicked off at 11pm Ugandan time, Meschak Elia put the Congolese in front in the 37th minute after a wicked deflection.

But not long after, in first half stoppage time, Mostafa Mohamed levelled from the spot after VAR intervention.

Egypt went on to be reduced to 10 men late on when substitute Mohamed Hamdy Sharaf was shown a second yellow card and given the marching orders.

Eventually, the Egytians defended solidly to push the contest to the dreaded penalties, but there would only be one team to come out on top: DR Congo.

That means a big win for the Congolese, who are coached by Sébastien Desabre, who has previously been in charge of Uganda's national football team, The Cranes, between December 2017 and July 2019.