The Eagles will meet the former African champions at Grand Stade de Tanger in the last eight of the competition on Friday, January 9, having navigated through their Round of 16 fixtures on Saturday.
Mali booked their place after defeating Tunisia 3-2 on penalties following a hard-fought 1-1 draw in regulation time and extra time, while Senegal needed a comeback win against Sudan.
The Lions of Teranga had gone down after Aamir Abdallah put Sudan ahead but Pape Gueye came to the rescue with a brace before substitute Ibrahima Mbaye sealed the victory late on.
So far in the tournament, Mali are yet to win a game. In the group stages, they drew 1-1 against Zambia in the opener, drew 1-1 against Morocco in matchday two, before drawing 0-0 against Comoros to qualify for the knockout stages.
Senegal will be favourites
The Eagles have now reached the last eight after their penalty shoot out win. Speaking ahead of the fixture against Senegal, the Belgian maintained their clear objective is to stay at AFCON until the end.
“We know we will now face Senegal in the quarter-finals; we are not favourites, Senegal will be favourites, just like Morocco, and Tunisia were favourites in the previous matches,” said Saintfiet at Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca.
“We want to take it one game at a time because we have a long mission here in Morocco. We have a clear objective, which is to remain in the competition.”
He added: “We need to stay calm and play our football; we have a good team that can play against anyone.”
On the win against Tunisia, the Belgian coach said: “I am proud of the goalkeeper and of all the players. Before the match, I told them that they are champions. If we had played with 11 players, we might have had even more advantages.
“After the red card, we remained calm and adapted to the situation, because football is also played with intelligence. We prepared very well for the match against Tunisia, and the players knew exactly what they were doing.”
Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra, who saved two penalties, and won man of the match, said: “From the start of the match, we knew it was going to be difficult, especially after one of our players received a red card. We spoke among ourselves as players and the coach gave us valuable advice.
“The match remained tough right through to the penalty shoot-out. We worked very hard to reach this result, and when it came to penalties, all the players said it was time to qualify. Personally, I was thinking about the Malian people.”
In the last four matches between the two sides, Senegal have managed three wins, and one has ended in a draw. The meeting saw Senegal win the first meeting 3-2, before winning the reverse fixture 2-1.
