Africa Cup of Nations 2025: What we learned from the Morocco finals

CAF should certainly consider changing its rules regarding bookings in knockout matches, having cleared all yellow cards after the group stage.

A total of 20 players were walking a tightrope in the semi-finals, knowing that a second booking in the space of three matches would rule them out of the final.

Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly and midfielder Habib Diarra were ultimately absent, while the same fate would have befallen Nigerian defender Calvin Bassey and Egyptian Hossam Abdelmajid had their team qualified.

While discipline is important, coaches, players, fans and media all want to see the strongest possible lineups take to the field in the biggest games.

Meanwhile, the requirement for a draw to separate teams with identical records in the group stage has occurred on almost three occasions.

This last happened at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015, when Guinea qualified ahead of Mali, and at one point it was necessary to decide which team would finish last among the four third-placed teams.

Although the draw might provide a moment of drama for the fair and neutral play records, or potentially a better attacking metric for the teams involved.