AFCON
FORTY-ONE YEARS AFTER, MUTUAL MISFORTUNES SET UP ANOTHER TUNISIA-NIGERIA AFCON LOSERS’ FINAL
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
With both conceding own goals as well as late goals, Tunisia and Nigeria are to battle on Wednesday for a consolatory losers’ final match on Wednesday.
Incidentally, both sides played at the same stage
41 years ago at the Ghana 1978 Africa Cup of Nations. The match in Ghana was
temperamental and had to be abandoned after Nigeria leveled at 1-1 and Tunisia
staged a walkout, alleging bad officiating.
The game was later awarded Nigeria with a 2-0 score line. Now they both find themselves battling again for the third place position of which Nigeria are the record holders with seven wins.
It will be the eighth time Nigeria will feature in the losers’ final and had won that part of the tournament seven times.
Both found themselves battling for the third place duel almost in similar circumstances. Tunisia after a fiercely contested semi-final match with Senegal scored a self-destroying goal through Dylan Bronn, 10 minutes into extra time after a goalless outing in regulation time in which both lost penalty kicks.
For Nigeria, it was a twist of fortune. In the same goalpost where William Troost-Ekong scored the goal that took the team to the semi-final, the same player scored an own goal from a cross by Riyad Mahrez.
It was the same Mahrez that put the final nail on the coffin on the dot of the four minutes of added time after Nigeria had earlier fought back to from a VAR-awarded penalty kick.
What a twist of fate! Nigeria got to the semi-finals through a last minute goal and also exited via the same means, with both goals coming from set-piece situations.
It is another third-place match as Nigeria did 13 years ago in Egypt to win that position for the sixth time after a 2-1 defeat of Senegal. Sports Village Square recalls that Nigeria won the third place position again nine years ago in Angola after a 1-0 defeat of Algeria.
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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