Super Eagles face Equatorial Guinea in AFCON Showdown

The Super Eagles of Nigeria will face Equatorial Guinea in their opening Group A match at the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Abidjan on Sunday, Bet Extract reports.

After missing out on a spot at the World Cup, the Super Eagles have placed third eight times and second four times more frequently than they have won three times in AFCON, a competition they participate in as one of the continent’s giants. Leading their team in Ivory Coast is Victor Osimhen, who is a member of a stellar group of players who play in Europe’s top leagues.

Jose Peseiro, nevertheless, has been in charge of a dismal sequence of results lately, which includes a friendly loss to Guinea to be ready for the AFCON and draws with Lesotho and Zimbabwe in World Cup qualifying.

In contrast, Equatorial Guinea has made it out of their group on each of their three prior AFCON expeditions.

Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea will play each other in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations for the first time. In their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying encounter, Nigeria defeated them both 1-0 and 2-0. Nigeria is participating in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations for the twentieth time. They have advanced to the semifinals in 14 of their previous 17 AFCON contests, and they have won the competition three times (1980, 1994, and 2013).

In the 1984 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria was eliminated as finalists after losing to Cameroon 3-1 in Côte d’Ivoire. In the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria has won 12 of the previous 15 games. Their most recent draw was against Zambia in the 2013 group stages (1-1).

Out of the 24 teams competing in this year’s tournament, the Super Eagles scored the most goals—22—in six games to qualify for the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Victor Osimhen scored 10 of those goals, which is twice as many as any other player (4 players on 5 goals). Although Equatorial Guinea has participated in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations four times, this is only their second qualifying event as non-hosts. They have never failed to advance to the next round, having finished fourth in 2015 and as quarterfinalists in 2012 and 2021.

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In their previous 15 CAF Africa Cup of Nations games, Equatorial Guinea has never scored more than two goals. Equatorial Guinea has only scored two goals in the first half of games at the AFCON.

Victor Osimhen scored 10 goals and provided two assists throughout the qualifying campaign, accounting for 55% of Nigeria’s goals. This is the most goals scored in an AFCON qualification round since Moumouni Dagano’s Burkina Faso squad in 2010 (12 goals).

More than any other side, the Super Eagles had 10 different goal scorers in their qualification for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, even though Victor Osimhen scored 10 of their 22 goals.