AFCON

Milestone Goal Awaits Super Eagles In Their 100th AFCON Match –

Published

8 months ago

January 21, 2024

Milestone Goal Awaits Super Eagles In Their 100th AFCON Match -

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Super Eagles need to win their Monday match for a realistic chance of topping Group A and remain in Abidjan where their Round of 16 opponent will be any of the third placed teams in groups C, D or E.

Their last group match against Guinea Bissau is their 100^th match since their debut in 1963.

The century match is not the only milestone ahead. Winning the match entails scoring of goals. Super Eagles first goal on Monday will be the team’s 140^th since their 1963 debut.

Therefore, who ever opens scoring for the Super Eagles will be registering the team’s 140^th goal in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Nigeria’s haul is currently 139. When Asuquo Ekpe scored against Egypt in Kumasi in 1963 to bring scoreline to 3-1 in an eventual 6-3 loss, he became the first Nigerian to score at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Obinna Nsofor scored Nigeria’s 100^th goal when he found the net in the sixth minute of a quarter-final match with Tunisia on 6 February 2006 in Port Said in Egypt. The match ended 1-1 and Nigeria went ahead 5-6 penalties.

Nwankwo Kanu’s spot kick, which was he hesitatingly took as the only person who had not taken partook in the penalty shootout, happened to be the last of the kicks.

It was the only time the former African Footballer of the Year found the net in five editions of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Austin Jay Jay Okocha scored the milestone 1,000^th goal in the Africa Cup of Nations history when he converted from the penalty spot in the 4-0 defeat of South Africa in 2004 in Tunisia.

Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations milestone goals

No.	Scorer	Match	Goal	Date
1^st	Asuquo Ekpe	Egypt 6-3 Nigeria	1-3	Nov. 24, 1963
10^th	Muda Lawal	Guinea1-1 Nigeria	0-1	Mar. 9, 1976
20^th	Eyo Martins	Uganda 2-1 Nigeria	1-1	Mar. 14, 1978
30^th	Stephen Keshi	Ethiopia 3-0 Nigeria	1-0	Mar. 7, 1982
40^th	Muda Lawal	Cameroon 3-1 Nigeria	0-1	Mar. 18,1984
50^th	Rashidi Yekini	Zambia 0-2 Nigeria	2-0	Mar. 12, 1990
60^th	Rashidi Yekini	Gabon 0-3 Nigeria	3-0	Mar. 26, 1994
70^th	Victor Ikpeba	Tunisia 2-4 Nigeria	1-3	Jan. 23, 2000
80th	Julius Aghahowa	Algeria 0-1 Nigeria	1-0	Jan 21, 2002
90^th	John Utaka	Benin 1-2 Nigeria	1-2	Feb. 4, 2004
100^th	Obinna Nsofor	Tunisia 1-1 Nigeria	0-1	Feb. 4, 2006
110^th	Obinna Nsofor	Algeria 0-1 Nigeria	1-0	Jan. 30, 2010
120^th	Ahmed Musa	Mali 1-4 Nigeria	1-4	Feb. 6, 2013
130^th	Odion Ighalo	Tunisia 0-1 Nigeria	0-1	Jul. 17, 2019
140^th	????	Guinea Bissau v. Nigeria	????	Jan. 22, 2024

AFCON

Libya sacks coach ahead of AFCON qualifying back-to-back matches with Nigeria

Published

3 days ago

September 17, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Milutin Sredojević

The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.

This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.

Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.

His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.

Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.

The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.

According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.

He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.

According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.

AFCON

CAF president blasts Ghana, others over stadium ban

Published

3 days ago

September 17, 2024

Kunle Solaja

CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,

After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.

Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.

Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.

“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.

He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”

Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.

“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.

AFCON

Present and Past as CAF Coaches Symposium unites Rohr, Peseiro and Eguavoen

Published

1 week ago

September 12, 2024

Kunle Solaja

The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.

Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.

Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.

Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations