South Africa’s Goalkeeper Ronwen Williams and Nigerian’s Stanley Nwabali seem to be in battle for the African Cup of Nations award after a very impressive run at the ongoing AFCON tournament, Bet Extract reports.
Both goalkeepers have earned fourth clean sheets each in the tournament with Nwabali clutching his against Angola while Williams against Cape Verde.
Ronwen Williams was South Africa’s hero in their Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final, saving four of Cape Verde’s five spot-kicks as the Bafana Bafana prevailed in a penalty shoot-out.
Prior to Saturday’s quarterfinal, no goalie in the current tournament had ever stopped a penalty in an AFCON shootout. While three players, including Egypt’s goalkeeper Gabaski, missed the mark in the Pharaohs’ loss to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal’s Moussa Niakhate struck the post in his team’s elimination, and all other shoot-out penalties had been scored.
In a recent Best Semi-Finalist Goalkeeper Poll by CAF, South Africa’s Williams Beats Nwabali to emerge the people’s favorite after his Quarter finals performance.
The 32-year-old Bafana Bafana goalkeeper polled 56.7% votes in the Confederation of African (CAF) poll while Stanley Nwabali got 35.5% votes.
On Sunday, February 4, the African Football Confederation (CAF) revealed the outcome via its X handle (previously known as Twitter) @CAF_Online.
With 4.9% of the vote, Congolese goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi finished far third, followed by Ivorian goalkeeper Yahia Fofana with 2.9%.
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The Super Eagles’ Nwabali and Bafana Bafana’s Williams will be in goal when Nigeria plays South Africa in the semifinal on Wednesday, February 7.
The host team, Cote d’Ivoire, will play Congo in the second semi-final. Mpasi and Fofana will be starting goalies for their respective nations.