CAIRO: Morocco beat Cote d'Ivoire 1-0 on Friday in their African Cup of Nations second Group D clash at the Al Salaam Stadium in Cairo to progress to the round of 16.
The victory sees Morocco move top of the group with six points, while Cote d'Ivoire drop to second with three points and will have play against Namibia on Monday.
Youssef En Nesyri scored the winner for Morocco in the 23rd minute to hand the Atlas Lions their second win in the tournament.
Morocco Keeper Yassin Bounou's two brilliant saves in the final five minutes of the first half ensured Morocco's win.
Bounou twice rose up acrobatically to keep out two ferocious shots from distance by Serey Die who was accorded plenty of space from outside the area.
Just before the goal, En Nesyri had come close when his connection from an Achraf Hakimi cross from the right came off the side netting with the Moroccan fans shouting in delight thinking the ball had gone in.
Keeper Bounou was Morocco's savior, making a brilliant block to deny Max Gradel at the edge of the box with Kodjia hitting the rebound wide with the keeper down.
In the second half, Cote d'Ivoire went full offensive with coach Ibrahim Kamara pulling out Gradel and Jean Michael Seri for Maxwell Cornet and Wilfried Bony respectively.
They were also forced to pull out skipper Aurier after he picked up an injury.
Bony had a late chance but his header off a Bagayoko Mamadou cross went wide.
Morocco should have killed off the game in added time but substitute Noussair Mazraoui hit the crossbar with a gaping goalmouth off a Hakimi cross.
"Our team is the strongest in the tournament that is why we came support in big numbers," Fatima Zahraa, a Moroccan fan told Xinhua during the match.
The young lady, who came with her family to show support to her national team, said thousands of Moroccans came to Egypt "because we are confident that our players can reach the final."
Also on Friday, Wahbi Khazri's stunning freekick in the 70th minute earned Tunisia a point against Mali as they came from a goal down to grab a 1-1 draw with Les Aigles in their second AFCON Group E clash in Suez.
A goalkeeping mistake from Hassan Mouez had given Mali the lead on the hour mark before Khazri led from the front with a brilliant set-piece 10 minutes later to earn Tunisia the point.
With the result, Mali remained top of the group with four points and are one foot into the round of 16.
Tunisia picked only their second point after drawing their opening game against Angola. Bottom placed Mauritania will face Angola in the other match in the group on Saturday afternoon.