The East Africans sealed their place in the knockout stages despite losing their final Group E fixture 2-0 against Burkina Faso at the Stade Mohamed V in Casablanca on Wednesday.
A goal in either half via Lassina Traoré, and Arsène Kouassi helped the Stallions to qualify for their sixth appearance at the AFCON, while Sudan finished third on three points, to reach the stage for the first time in their history.
The two nations were just meeting in their second competitive meeting, and their first clash at the AFCON finals since 2012. Appiah had previously faced Burkina Faso at the AFCON while in charge of Ghana. The qualification ticket will see Sudan come up against the Lions of Teranga, who reached the Round of 16 as Group D winners with seven points.
Sudan deserves to go far at AFCON
“Now that we are facing Senegal, I will have one message to the players, I will have to tell them you have played against Burkina Faso, and now you have to play against Senegal, so you need to show your true colours,” said Appiah after the Burkina Faso game.
“Sudan deserves to go far in the AFCON, and our ultimate goal remains to chase for the AFCON title. We have respect for Senegal, they are a big footballing country in Africa, they are the former champions, but we are ready.
“My players will need to prove to me, and to all Sudanese people here and back home that they deserve to go better than where we are. I think Senegal are the favourites, but I am sure we will give them a very good game.”
On analysing the defeat against Burkina Faso, Appiah said: “It was a difficult match against Burkina Faso and our opponent deserved their victory. As I said before the match, we were going to face a tough team, most of whose players play for big clubs across Europe.
“When you play against such teams, you realise how difficult the task is. The players tried to give their best, but this is football and you can never be certain of anything. I learned many lessons from this match, which will help me prepare for the upcoming games.”
Burkina Faso coach Brama Traoré maintained their focus was to go all the way in the AFCON tournament. Ahead of the 35th edition of the AFCON, the Stallions had progressed from the group stage five times - in 1998, 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2023.
He said: “We are trying to stand out in the knockout stages. We must continue our work, move forward, and inscribe a golden star on the Burkina Faso national team’s jersey. Our players are determined to make the difference and to achieve good results in this edition of the AFCON.
“What matters to us are the results and the fact that we are representing our country. Before the match, we were already more focused on preparing for the Round of 16. We had to rotate the squad for the match against Sudan, and we decided to rest some players ahead of the next round.”
Goalscorer Kouassi was elated to win man of the match and further said the Stallions were ready to fight and make it past the Round of 16.
“I am happy to have been named Man of the Match. It was a difficult game against Sudan, but we managed to achieve our objective. We will try to keep this momentum going into the upcoming matches,” said the player, who plays for French Ligue 1 club Lorient.
“I always work hard and I am happy to be taking part in this tournament and to have scored against Sudan. I have big goals to achieve and I will give even more of myself.”
He concluded: “I will not stop here; I will continue working to reach the objectives of our national team. We will fight hard in the Round of 16, because we have a goal to achieve.”
Sudan managed one win from three matches and lost two. Their win came against Equatorial Guinea 1-0, before losing 3-0 against Algeria, and 2-0 against Burkina Faso.
