Africa Cup of Nations 2019: Mali 0-1 Ivory Coast - 3 reasons why Ivory Coast won 

#2 Wasted opportunities

Mali's Moussa Marega - He had a couple of opportunities to get on the score sheet

The Eagles of Mali were largely in control of the game, but despite having the lion share of possession as well as dominating the shot count, they failed to do the needful - score.

The purpose of the game is to put the ball in the net, but the Malians seemed to be oblivious of that fact. With a total of 18 shots, they only managed to hit the target a paltry 4 times. The likes of Moussa Marega and Moussa Djanepo failed to hit the target, even on occasions when they were well placed.

Mistakes like those are more often than not costly, especially in the knockout phase where there are no second chances.

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#1 Inexperience

The Malians squad is brimming with youth

With all said and done, we can perhaps attribute Mali's round of 16 ouster to inexperience. With an average age of 24.3 years, Mali boasted of the second youngest side at this year's African showpiece.

With a whopping 18 shots on target and an impressive 60 percent possession, they were only able to threaten the keeper directly on 4 occasions. That was poor, especially as most of their chances seemed far easier to put in the net than miss.

This is not saying they were too young to progress to the last eight, but rather, with a little more composure they could have found the back of the net severally against the Elephants of Ivory Coast.