Nigeria’s Super Eagles will take to the field at the African Cup of Nations for a historic hundredth time when they trade tackles with the Wild Dogs of Guinea-Bissau. Nigeria will become only the fourth nation to reach the milestone at the continent’s biggest football showpiece, following in the footsteps of Egypt, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire. On the flip side, Guinea-Bissau, who have been ousted from the tournament following two successive losses to hosts, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, will be playing their twelfth game at the Africa Cup of Nations.
For the historic hundredth match of the Super Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations, the team will seek to clinch a ticket to the knockout stages as well as improve on their records at the continental showpiece. Following 21 appearances and 99 matches at the tourney, Nigeria has won 54, drawn 23, and lost 22. Of the 99 matches, the Super Eagles have scored 139 goals and conceded 91 goals, making it an average of 1.4 goals scored per match at the tournament.
21 appearances at the continental showpiece has resulted in 3 title triumphs from 7 final appearances for Nigeria – 1980, 1994, and 2013. The Super Eagles have also earned a third-place finish on eight occasions. Legendary Super Eagle striker, Rashidi Yekini is the nation’s highest goalscorer at the tournament with 13 strikes to his name.
Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau will meet for the fourth time, having faced each other at the 2021 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, which the Super Eagles won by two goals to nil before the Djurtus recorded a shock one-nil win in Abuja during the qualifying series for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations tournament. The Super Eagles returned the favour with a similar scoreline in Bissau to hold a 2-1 lead in this emerging rivalry.
A win for the Super Eagles will seal qualification tickets into the knockout stages of the competition as well as the possibility of topping the group depending on the result of the other group match. Even a shock loss to the Wild Dogs of Guinea-Bissau can still see the Super Eagles of Nigeria qualify as one of the four third-best teams. Guinea-Bissau is yet to record a win in 11 attempts at the Africa Cup of Nations and can be inspired by Namibia’s historic maiden win at the tourney to record theirs.
Perhaps the most troubling concern for Nigerians going into the match against Guinea Bissau is the team’s paltry number of goals – two goals in two games. The profligacy of its main attacking threat, Victor Osimhen, who has uncharacteristically spurned several good goalscoring chances over the last two matches is concerning. The African Footballer of the Year’s struggles in front of goal need to be resolved as quickly as possible to boost the team’s chances of competing favourably for the title. Perhaps, more comforting is the fact that the Napoli striker tends to make the right runs and gets into decent position, so it should be a matter of time before Osimhen bangs in the goals regularly.
Conclusively, if the Super Eagles of Nigeria are to compete favourably for the title, they have to build on the win over the Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire by beating the Wild Dogs of Guinea-Bissau emphatically.
