AFCON

13 AMAZING FACTS AHEAD OF NIGERIA-EGYPT FRIENDLY MATCH

Published

5 years ago

March 24, 2019

BY KUNLE SOLAJA

Both Nigeria and Egypt meet in Asaba on Tuesday after both played their
respective last matches for the qualifying series of the 2019 Africa Cup of
Nations at the weekend. Both secured qualification before the last match days
with their encounters merely serving as build-up to the final competition in
June.

As usual, www.sportsvillagesquare.com takes
an insightful look at the match and comes out with the following points of
interest.

The match will be the third match that the Super Eagles will play at the arena that serves as eternal memorial to the former skipper and coach, Stephen Keshi.

Egypt is the first country that inflicted a home defeat on Nigeria when the then United Arab Republic beat Nigeria’s ‘Red Devils’ 6-2 in Lagos in a Rome 1960 Olympic qualifying tournament.

Egypt was the team that made Nigeria to switch from red shirts to the now familiar green. It was at the occasion of the return leg match of the Rome Olympic Games’ qualifying tournament played in Cairo on January 1, 1960. The Nigerian team had to change to green since the home country played in red. It was a step towards becoming ‘Green Eagles’ in the months that followed. Nigeria lost the match 0-3.

Nigeria’s first own goal was scored in the match with Egypt (UAR) on December 13,1959 when John Onyeador turned the ball into his team’s net after two minutes of kick-off in an eventual 2-6 home loss.

It was against Egypt that Asuquo Ekpe scored Nigeria’s first Africa Cup of Nations’ goal in a 6-3 loss on November 24, 1963 in Kumasi, Ghana.

It was in Egypt that Obinna Nsofor scored Nigeria’s 100th Africa Cup of Nations goal when he found the net in a 1-1 draw with Tunisia on February 4, 2006 in Port Said.

Obafemi Martins, Taye Taiwo and Joseph Enakhire join Obinna Nsofor in celebrating what turned to be Nigeria’s 100th goal in the Africa Cup of Nations when Super Eagles faced Tunisia at Port Said in Egypt during the 2006 tournament.

Until Ghana beat Egypt in the qualifying series for Brazil 2014, Nigeria’s 4-0 defeat of Egypt on October 8, 1977, was the country’s heaviest defeat in a World Cup qualifying match.

Until Egypt beat Nigeria 3-1 in Benguela, Angola, Nigeria successively had the upper hand in all Africa Cup of Nations’ matches involving both countries from 1976 to 2010.

Former Nigerian skipper, Stephen Keshi scored the first of his 10 goals for Nigeria when he converted a penalty kick against Egypt in a friendly match on February 20, 1983 in Kaduna to bring scoreline to 1-1.

The doyen of football coaches in Nigeria, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde made his national debut as Nigeria’s coach in a February 18, 1983 friendly match with Egypt in Lagos. The match ended goalless.

**Chief Onigbinde made his international coaching debut when he led Nigeria to face Egypt on February 18, 1983 in Lagos.**

Egypt with seven victories won most titles of the Africa Cup of Nations. Nigeria with seven third placed positions has the record of most bronze medals.

Nigeria and Egypt are the only countries to have personalities who won the African titles as players and coaches. Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary won the African Cup as player in 1959 and then as a coach in 1998. Nigeria’s Stephen Keshi won the cup as a player in 1994 and then as a coach in 2013.

In head-to-head confrontations, Egypt has a slight edge over Nigeria having won eight of 20 encounters while Nigeria won five.

P W D L F A

Egypt 20 8 7 5 36 28

Nigeria 20 5 7 8 28 36

13 Dec. 1959 (Oq, Lagos) Nigeria 2-6 Egypt
1 Jan. 1960 (Oq, Cairo) Egypt 3-0 Nigeria
29 Nov. 1960 (F. Lagos) Nigeria 1-2 Egypt
24 Nov. 1963 (Afcon, Kumasi) Egypt 6-3 Nigeria
14 Jan 1973 (AAG, Lagos) Nigeria 4-2 Egypt
14 Mar 1976 (Afcon Dire Dawa) Egypt 2-3 Nigeria
8 Oct. 1977 (WCq, Lagos) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
21 Oct. 1977 (WCq, Cairo) Egypt 3-1 Nigeria
15 Mar. 1980 (Afcon, Lagos) Nigeria 1-0 Egypt
18 Feb. 1983 (F. Lagos) Nigeria 0-0 Egypt
20 Feb. 1983 (F. Kaduna) Nigeria 1-1 Egypt
14 Mar. 1984 (Afcon, Bouake) Egypt 2-2 Nigeria (7-8 pso)
20 Mar. 1988 (Afcon, Rabat) Egypt 0-0 Nigeria
5. Mar. 1990 (Afcon, Algiers) Egypt 0-1 Nigeria
30 Mar. 1994 (Afcon, Tunis) Egypt 0-0 Nigeria
25 Nov 2002 (F. Lagos) Nigeria 1-1 Egypt
12 Jan 2010 (Afcon. Benguela) Egypt 3-1 Nigeria
12 Apr 2012 (F-Dubai) Egypt 3-2 Nigeria
25 Mar 2016 (Afconq, Kaduna) Nigeria 1-1 Egypt
29 Mar, 2016 (Afconq, Alexandria) Egypt 1-0 Nigeria

AFCON

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

Published

2 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

2 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