{"id":12174,"date":"2026-01-08T23:58:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/12174\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:58:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:58:22","slug":"africa-cup-of-nations-from-diaz-to-mazadona-five-new-faces-to-watch-in-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/12174\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Cup of Nations: From Diaz to &#8216;Mazadona,&#8217; five new faces to watch in quarterfinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Africa Cup of Nations reaches the quarterfinal stage this weekend with a series of mouthwatering ties between the continent\u2019s heavyweights.<\/p>\n<p>The Africa Cup of Nations reaches the quarter-final stage this weekend with a series of mouthwatering ties between the continent\u2019s heavyweights. Here are five stars enjoying their first AFCON to look out for in the last eight:<\/p>\n<p>SUBSCRIBE TO KEEP READING<\/p>\n<p>Daily TV listings for U.S. and global soccer.<\/p>\n<p>Inside access to USA\u2019s 2026 World Cup prep.<\/p>\n<p>Exclusive interviews with players and coaches.<\/p>\n<p>Expert analysis of top soccer headlines.<\/p>\n<p>Cancel anytime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">Already have an account? Sign in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not ready to subscribe? Sign up here for our free newsletter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">Already have an account? Sign in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Africa Cup of Nations reaches the quarterfinal stage this weekend with a series of mouthwatering ties between&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,5902,390,143,165,122,8311,1387,159],"class_list":{"0":"post-12174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-african-nations-cup","10":"tag-algeria","11":"tag-cameroon","12":"tag-morocco","13":"tag-nigeria","14":"tag-paris-st-germain","15":"tag-real-madrid","16":"tag-senegal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}