In the 119th minute, with a penalty shootout looming, Adil Boulbina received a perfectly weighted pass on the left wing and did what the match had been waiting for: he finished it. The substitute's vicious strike into the net gave Algeria a 1-0 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo in their Africa Cup of Nations last-16 tie, and sent 18,837 fans at Rabat's Moulay El Hassan Stadium into celebration.
It was a moment that decided a match neither team had quite managed to dominate. For 120 minutes, both sides had talent on the pitch—Algeria's Riyad Mahrez and Ibrahim Maza, Congo's Axel Tuanzebe—but neither could find the clinical finish the occasion demanded. Chances came in pieces: a header just wide here, a shot narrowly past there. The kind of match where quality in the final third matters more than anything else.
Boulbina, a 22-year-old forward who plays for Al-Duhail in Qatar, changed that calculus with one strike. It's the kind of substitution gamble that defines tournament football—he and Ramiz Zerrouki came on together in the second half of extra time, and within minutes, Zerrouki's pass released Boulbina into space. He didn't waste it.
We're a new kind of news feed.
Regular news is designed to drain you. We're a non-profit built to restore you. Every story we publish is scored for impact, progress, and hope.
Start Your News DetoxFor Algeria, now defending their 2019 continental title, this win cements their status as genuine contenders for a third AFCON crown. They'd already won all their group games, and they've now earned a quarterfinal showdown with Nigeria—the team led by striker Victor Osimhen—in Marrakesh on Saturday. It's a tantalizing matchup between two of Africa's football superpowers.
For Congo, the loss stings differently. They'd arrived at AFCON with genuine ambition, and they'd actually beaten Nigeria on penalties in a World Cup qualifier just two months ago. That victory had felt like a statement. This defeat, in extra time when a shootout seemed inevitable, closes one door. But there's another opening: an intercontinental playoff in March where a win against either New Caledonia or Jamaica would secure their first World Cup appearance since 1974—a gap of 52 years.
Algeria, already qualified for the World Cup finals in North America, can focus entirely on the tournament ahead. The path to a third continental title just got clearer.
