Morocco suffered last minutes onslaught by rampaging Co-hosts Gabon strikers led by Cousin and saw their 2-1 lead barely eight minutes to end of game cancelled as a 98th-minute winner book ed a quarter-final place in Libreville on Friday.
<--more-->The free-kick from Bruno Zita Mbanangoye enabled Gabon to qualify from Group C with Tunisia. They meet in Franceville on Tuesday to decide top spot.
Houssine Kharja’s composed finish had set Morocco on their way after the north Africans had dominated in the first half. A quick-fire comeback followed as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang volleyed in a sumptuous strike before Daniel Cousin looked to have sealed a quarter-final berth in the 79th minute.
Charly Moussono’s handball in the penalty area saw Kharja convert the spot-kick for his second and potentially keep the north Africans in the tournament.
But the final twist saw substitute Mbanangoye strike in a wonderful free-kick to seal the most dramatic of wins.
Favourites Morocco join Senegal in being eliminated by unfancied co-hosts, and Eric Gerets’ man look forward to a dead-rubber against Niger.
In the earlier match, another late strike, this time from Issam Jemaa, saw Tunisia grab a vital 2-1 win over Niger.
The north Africans enjoyed a dream start to their match when Youssef Msakni slipped in from the left side, dribbling past the entire defence before slotting in the first goal on four minutes.
Zouhaier Dhaouadi then had an opportunity to double the lead but his long distance effort missed the target.
Just as Tunisia were beginning to take control of the encounter, Niger scored against the run of play when Moussa Maazou used his hand to interfere with Tunisian goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi, resulting in a William Tonji Ngounou header drifting into the net.
The equaliser clearly unsettled the Tunisian players who struggled to get back into the match while Niger grew in confidence and had multiple opportunities to take the lead.
Looking for attacking solutions, Tunisia manager Sami Trabelsi replaced Amine Chermiti and Dhaouadi with Jemaa and Oussama Darragi to start the final 45 minutes.
Despite the changes the threats were mainly coming from a familiar source in the shape of Msakni.
On 63 minutes, Aymen Abdennour broke forward from central defence and rolled a left-footed shot onto Niger custodian Daouda Kassaly’s post.
With the game edging towards a stalemate, Tunisian all-time leading scorer Jemaa was on hand to score the winner on 90 minutes.