AFCON
POINTS OF INTEREST AS NIGERIA, SOUTH AFRICA RENEW FOOTBALL RIVALRY
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
From the original 24 teams, the field now narrows to eight as the Africa Cup of Nations hits the quarterfinals stage. All the teams in Group, A that comprises the hosts, Egypt as well as Zimbabwe, DR Congo and Uganda, have since kissed the competition good bye.
Madagascar still remains the mysterious entity in the pack and the sole survivor among the trio of debutants. But the point of interest here now is the Nigeria-South Africa fixture. It is a match of familiar opponents who have even met twice in the qualifying series.
As usual, www.sportsvillagesquare.com takes an insightful look at the match and comes out with the following points of interest.
- Sports Village Square records that this will be Nigeria’s 91st match in Africa Cup of Nations’ history since the 6-3 loss to United Arab Republic, now Egypt on 24 November 1963 in Kumasi, Ghana.
- The encounter marks South Africa’s 43rd match in the Africa Cup of Nations since making debut on home soil in 1996.
- Both Nigeria and South Africa scuttled the reenactment of the 2017, 2008 and 1986 final matches of Egypt versus Cameroon. While Nigeria eliminated Cameroon, South Africa sent out Egypt in the Round of 16.
- Nigeria and South Africa are meeting in the Africa Cup of Nations for the third time. They first met in 2000 in Lagos and later in Monastir, Tunisia. Nigeria won 2-0, 4-0 respectively.
- Nigerian legend, Austin Okocha scored the milestone 1000th goal of the Africa Cup of Nations in the 2004 Nigeria’s encounter with South Africa.
- South Africa progressively declined in performance at the Africa Cup of Nations, winning in 1996, runners-up in 1998, third-place in 2000, quarter finals in 2002, group stage in 2004 where they were ranked 11th among 16 team; and group stage again in 2006, raking 16th among 16 teams.
- Nigeria’s Ayodele Makinwa was a scoring debutant in Nigeria’s 2-1 loss to South Africa at the 2004 Nelson Mandela Challenge match.
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- South Africa’s 2-1 win over Nigeria in 2004 was the country’s first ever. It was followed up with another 2-0 win in Uyo, making South Africa’s current Scot coach, Stuart Baxter, the only one to have led South Africa to beat Nigeria.
- Leon Balogun, if fielded, will be playing against his club teammate at Brighton & Hove Albion, Pacy Tau who is South Africa most accomplished striker.
- This is South Africa’s first quarterfinal match in four of their previous participation in the Africa Cup of Nations.
- South Africa have qualified for the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations only thrice in past – 1996, 1998 and 2000.
- Nigeria have got to semi-final stage or further in 14 of their 17 appearances at the Africa Cup of Nations including 11 of the last 12.
- Wednesday’s match will be the 25th clash of both Nigeria and South Africa. These include their clash in the 2014 Africa Cup of Nations Championship (CHAN). Nigeria won seven times as against two victories by South Africa. The remaining five were drawn.
Nigeria vs. South Africa: Head-to-Head
P W D L F A GD
Nigeria 14 7 5 2 23 9 +14
S/Africa 14 2 5 7 9 23 -14
10 Oct.1992 (WCq) Nigeria 4-0 S/Africa
16 Jan 1993 (WCq) S/Africa 0-0 Nigeria
10 Feb.2000 (AFCON) Nigeria 2-0 S/ Africa
31 Jan.2004 (AFCON) S/ Africa 0-4 Nigeria
17 Nov. 2004 (F) South Africa 2-1 Nigeria
1 Jun 2008 (WCq) Nigeria 2-0 S/Africa
6 Sep 2008 (WCq) S/Africa 0-1 Nigeria
14 Aug 2013 (F) S/Africa 0-2 Nigeria
14 Jan 2014 (CHAN) S/Africa 3-1 Nigeria
10 Sep 2014 (AFCON q) S/Africa 0-0 Nigeria
19 Nov 2014 (AFCON q) Nigeria 2-2 S/Africa
29 Mar 2015 (F) S/Africa 1-1 Nigeria
10 Jun 2017 (AFCON q) Nigeria 0-2 South Africa
17 Nov 2018 (AFCON q) S/Africa 1-1 Nigeria
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.
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.
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
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