Sebastien Haller's unorthodox 65th-minute volley has booked Ivory Coast an unlikely meeting with Nigeria in the AFCON final after beating DR Congo 1-0 at Ebimpe Olympic Stadium on Wednesday night. <br /><br />The hosts have the chance to win the tournament on home soil - and become the first team to do so since Egypt in 2006 - just over two weeks after they sacked manager Jean-Louis Grasset after an unimpressive group stage. <br /><br />Les Elephants had assumed that after finishing third in their group and falling to lackluster defeats against Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, they were destined to crash out of the competition. <br /><br />Instead, the team was spared and sent through as the strongest third-placed side. <br /><br />Since managed by interim head coach Emerse Fae, the side has claimed victory against Senegal on penalties in the round of 16 and a 2-1 win against Mali in the quarter-finals. <br /><br />Haller was making his first start in the tournament after recovering from an ankle injury and had previously missed a header at close range in the goalless first half. <br /><br />But fortune was on his side when Max Gradel lofted a cross from the dead-ball line to the right of goal into the center of the box - only for Haller to catch the ball with a freakish touch almost off his right ankle. <br /><br />The shot looped well out of Lionel M'Pasi's grasp, landing behind the Congolese goalkeeper in the back of the net. <br /><br />On the touchline, Fae celebrated as if he knew the goal was the winner - and such was Ivorian dominance that Sebastien Desabre's side could offer no response. <br /><br />'We are happy, we're moved. It's like a dream when you go back two weeks to the defeat here against Equatorial Guinea,' said Fae after the final whistle.<br /><br />'It was hard then to imagine that we might qualify for the final of our own AFCON.'<br /><br />Haller's match-winning strike comes just 599 days after he first received his diagnosis of testicular cancer weeks after joining Borussia Dortmund from Ajax in the summer of 2022. <br /><br />The 29-year-old underwent chemotherapy and two operations at the end of that year, before returning to action at the Bundesliga club in January 2023. <br /><br />A month later, Haller scored his first goal back on World Cancer Day as Dortmund beat Freiburg 5-1. <br /><br />The player previously described chemotherapy as being 'like a game' due to the importance of keeping a positive mindset. <br /><br />'I am someone who’s trying to be positive all the time,' Haller said in 2023. 'I have this mindset that I want to be able to get through things. I was putting the bad thoughts away. "Hospital? Yeah, let’s go."<br /><br />'You have the chemo and every day you have this liquid in your body and you’re just focused - like a game.<br /><br />'You have five days that are s***. But, OK, you are not alone. Seventy-two hours (of feeling unwell), and then it will be OK for two weeks.<br /><br />'You are thinking about your family and seeing your family, resting and enjoying it. I kept those ideas in my mind.'
