Senegal 1 Benin 0: Mane and Gueye link up to break Squirrels' resolve

Senegal escaped with a slender victory against Uganda in the last 16 and they were again made to work hard to keep their quest for a first AFCON title alive by Benin.

Following a quiet opening hour in Cairo that saw Mane largely shackled, Aliou Cisse's side stepped things up and found a winner 21 minutes from time through Everton midfielder Gueye.

Gueye exchanged passes with Mane and converted into the far corner to book a semi-final date with either Madagascar or Tunisia and end the dream run of Benin, who were reduced to 10 men late on when Olivier Verdon was dismissed.

STATS | Check out the full-time stats! Which team had the better overall performance? #TotalAFCON2019 #SENBEN pic.twitter.com/EkZxufJR7E

— CAF (@CAF_Online) July 10, 2019

Benin focused on keeping out the opposition in the first half, but Senegal did get in behind a couple of times shortly before half-time.

M'Baye Niang and Gueye had shots blocked and Youssouf Sabaly was unable to square the ball to Mane in front of goal for what would have been a simple finish.

Mane's frustrations continued early in the second half as he had a header rightly ruled out for offside.

But the Liverpool forward started to see more of the ball and he played a big part in the winning goal as he linked up with Gueye, who showed great composure after surging through to fire across Saturnin Allagbe.

Mane was denied a goal by VAR four minutes later - the first use of the technology in the tournament - and he then had an attempt kept off the line by Emmanuel Imorou.