The past three Africa Cup of Nations finals were littered with giant slaying performances and shock results but the latest edition in Morocco has gone with form and assured a heavyweight line-up of teams for the knockout fixtures at the weekend, Reuters reported. 

The first round of matches concluded on Wednesday with only one former champion, Zambia, eliminated but the other 11 past winners reached the last-16, setting up potentially mouth-watering showdowns from now on.

Only Mozambique and Tanzania had never progressed to the knockout stages previously, squeezing through among the best third-placed finishers, while Sudan are past the first round for only the second time since they won the competition in 1970, according to Reuters.