Following the exit of many African soccer heavyweights from the ongoing delayed 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Cote d’Ivoire, all eyes are now on Nigeria’s Super Eagles as favourites to win the continental title for the fourth time.
The Super Eagles, who defeated age-old rivals Cameroon in the round of 16 to face Angola in the quarterfinals, are the highest-ranked team left in the competition after the exit of Morocco Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, and also the most successful team in the AFCON winners in the last eight.
The three-time champions are being backed to progress to the AFCON decider on February 11, but they have to first overcome Angola in Friday’s quarter-final cracker at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan.
Former Bafana Bafana captain, Dean Furman, who spoke ahead of South Africa’s quarter-final tie with Cape Verde on Saturday, snubbed his country and named Nigeria as the favourites to win the 2023 AFCON title.
“I don’t want to speak too soon because Cape Verde, we played them twice in 2017 in the World Cup qualifiers, we lost to them twice,” Furman told the BBC World Service.
“The so-called big nations, the fancied nation Nigeria are going about their work in an understated fashion but I think they are ticking on really nicely, so I would have them down as the favourites right now,” he added.
Though Palancas Negras are not expected to be straightforward opponents against the highest-ranked Super Eagles, the Southern African nation has a history of ruining Nigeria’s ambition. Palancas Negras denied the Super Eagles a place at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Also, Pedro Goncalves’s men surprisingly topped Group B, comprising Algeria, with seven points and have not looked back since the 1-1 draw against the North African nation in their opening match, beating fearless Mauritania 3-2, Burkina Faso 2-0 and Namibia 3-0.
Head-to-head and Match-form:
– Nigeria and Angola have met severally in the past but on a few occasions at senior level over the years. Nigeria edged Angola to reach the final round of the qualification series for the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals (2-2 in Luanda and 1-0 in Lagos), but the Angolans stepped on Nigeria to make their single appearance at the FIFA World Cup finals, when they won 1-0 in Luanda and held the Eagles 1-1 in Kano to edge the head-to-head contest that was the determining factor for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification series.
– Nigeria are playing in their 11th quarter-final match at the Africa Cup of Nations and have won their last three AFCON games without conceding. They’ve never won four consecutive matches in a single edition without conceding a goal.
– Angola have won their last two AFCON matches without conceding, they’ve never previously kept three consecutive clean sheets in the competition. Following his second brace against Namibia in the round of 16, Gelson Dala is the joint-top goal scorer (4) for Angola in a single edition of the tournament, along with Manucho (four goals in 2008).
– Ademola Lookman scored his first-ever Africa Cup of Nations goals (2) against Cameroon in the last 16. He became the fourth Nigerian to score three or more goals in the knockout rounds of a single AFCON edition, after Ighalo in 2019 (4), Jay-Jay Okocha in 2004 (3) and Rashidi Yekini in 1994 (3).
– While Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali is fit to start Friday’s encounter, Angola will be without the suspended Neblu, sent off after 17 minutes against Namibia for handling the ball outside his penalty area.
– The winner of Friday’s encounter will square up with the winner of the clash between Cape Verde’s Blue Sharks and South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in one of the semi-final matches, at the Stade de la Paix in Bouake.
