Either way, history was always going to be made in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) semi-final between Madagascar and Sudan.
Neither team had ever made the final of the tournament that serves as a domestic-based Africa Cup of Nations. While Morocco and Senegal met in a heavyweight clash on the other side of the bracket, two underdogs faced off in Tanzania.
For both teams, the match was played against a backdrop of domestic crisis and emergency. Sudan has been torn apart by civil war.
Madagascar, meanwhile, is entering the fifth year of a drought that has pushed more than one million people into starvation. Despite this, the country’s national team is growing as a footballing force.
The Barea (nicknamed after a species of zebu cattle) are just one win from the unlikeliest of glories.
