AFCON 2023 Final Preview: Nigeria face hungry Ivorian revenge bid in quest for fourth AFCON title
Africa Cup of Nations
For the fifth time this century, the finalists of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) have emerged from the same group, although on this occasion neither of them topped Group A!
Drawn as the ‘home team’ for this final, but with the majority of the 60,000 spectators in Abidjan’s Olympic Stadium of Ebimpé against them, Nigeria has already demonstrated they know how to silence a hostile crowd when they defeated host nation Côte d’Ivoire 1-0 at this very venue last month.
That was to be the first of five consecutive games at this tournament in which they didn’t concede a single goal from open play, illustrating where their strengths lie in their pursuit of a fifth AFCON crown.
It was a semi-final penalty shootout against South Africa that propelled them into their first AFCON final since winning the tournament in 2013, and they’ll be hoping to avoid a repeat of the previous AFCON to take place in Côte d’Ivoire, when they finished as runners-up.
Even the most optimistic football fan from Côte d’Ivoire must have thought their AFCON dreams went up in smoke two weeks ago. The host nation scraped through a near-disastrous group stage campaign (W1, L2) in which they sacked manager Jean-Louis Gasset only to claim 16th and last place in the knockouts.
But they rallied to knock out reigning champions Senegal in the last 16, before a quarter-final win over Mali booked a semi-final date with DR Congo, who they beat 1-0 to secure just their second regulation time win of the entire tournament and book their spot in their first AFCON final since their 2015 title.
In doing so, the two-time AFCON champions became the first host nation since Egypt in 2006 to reach the final match of the tournament. Egypt lifted the trophy in that edition after a penalty shootout win over Côte d’Ivoire, whose playing squad featured current caretaker manager Emerse Faé.
Perhaps spurred on by the heartbreak of that final loss, and the recent defeat to Nigeria, Faé has been careful to assert that it’s not necessarily their ‘destiny’ to win a home AFCON. But as home nations have a 10-3 record in AFCON finals, they could hold a significant advantage!
Nigeria’s Road To Final
Following a jittery start to their AFCON 2023 campaign, the Super Eagles of Nigeria soared into the final in impressive fashion to send out a strong signal of being title contenders.
Group A – Finished Second place
Drawn in a tough Group A consisting of tournament hosts, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
The Super Eagles finished second in their group after a worrying 1-1 draw against Equatorial Guinea saw them bounce back against the Elephants with a narrow 1-0 win and a similar scoreline against Guinea-Bissau which earned them a place in the round of 16.
Round of 16 (Nigeria 2-0 Cameroon)
The round of 16 saw Nigeria getting into rhythm and hitting full speed. An interesting tie between them and Cameroon saw the red-hot Ademola Lookman finding the back of the net twice for his side to send the Indomitable Lions crashing out of the competition.
Quarter-Finals (Nigeria 1-0 Angola)
The quarter-finals were not so much of a high-scoring match for the Super Eagles as they narrowly edged a resilient Angola 1-0 in Abidjan. While they may not have found the back of the net more than once, the three-time champions demonstrated a true champions’ mentality with their impressive game-management ability.
Semi-Final (Nigeria 4-2 South Africa) on penalties.
Nigeria continued their dominance over South Africa by defeating them in penalties to progress in the finals. With 120 minutes ending 1-1, Nigeria luckily won on penalties to repeat what happened in 2000 when they knocked out South Africa in the semi-finals as well.
Côte d’Ivoire’s Road To Final
The host country has come a long way in the competition to reach the final, making good use of their qualification as one of the third-best-placed teams after a 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea nearly ended their campaign.
With just a game away from becoming champions of Africa, let’s a look at their journey to the final.
Group A – qualified as third best-placed team
In a charged atmosphere at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan, Cotê d’Ivoire started their campaign with a convincing 2-0 win over Guinea-Bissau, with goals from Seko Fofana and Jean-Philippe Krasso.
The hosts slipped in their second game with a 1-0 defeat against Nigeria and everything started crumbling for Jean-Louis Gasset and his men. They needed a win in their last game against Equatorial Guinea to qualify automatically, but the Nzalang proved to be difficult to beat. The Elephants suffered a 4-0 defeat and were on their way home.
It wasn’t until the final group stage match of the entire tournament between Morocco and Zambia that Côte d’Ivoire (3 points) secured a spot as the best third-placed team, ensuring qualification for the round of 16.
Before the knockout stage, the Elephants’ coaching staff was reshuffled. Emerse Faé took over from Gasset, who was sacked after the heavy loss to Equatorial Guinea.
Round of 16 (Côte d’Ivoire 5-4 Senegal on penalties)
Things started getting better for Cotê d’Ivoire; they showed great composure against defending champions, Senegal by defeating them on penalties after the 120 minutes ended 1-1.
Quarter-finals (Côte d’Ivoire 2-1 Mali after extra-time)
They had Mali to deal with in the quarter-finals. With their confidence back, Cotê d’Ivoire, despite having a player sent off earlier in the game, managed to win.
Late goals from Simon Adingra and Oumar Diakite in the regulation and extra time respectively won the game for the hosts to book a place in the semi-finals.
Semi-finals (Côte d’Ivoire 1-0 DR Congo)
Côte d’Ivoire gained their confidence in the semi-finals and showed the character required in the tournament by beating the Leopards. Sebastian Haller scored in the second half to win it for the Ivorians.
As they face three-time champions, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire will have revenge at the back of their minds but the biggest motivation will be equaling Nigeria’s total number of AFCON trophies.
Match Facts and Figures
- This is the second time Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire will face in the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, following the 1-0 victory for the Super Eagles in the group stages. Côte d’Ivoire haven’t beaten them at AFCON since the 2008 group stages, a 1-0 win.
- Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire are meeting for the eighth time at the Africa Cup of Nations (three wins for Nigeria, two for Côte d’Ivoire, D2), including in all three AFCON editions where the Super Eagles have won the competition (group stage draw in 1980, a 4-2 Nigeria win on pens after a 2-2 semi-final draw in 1994 and a 2-1 Nigeria win in the quarter-finals in 2013).
- Following their 1-0 win in the group stages over Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria will be looking to beat the same nation twice at in a CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournament for the first time since 2006, when they beat Senegal in the group stage and third-place playoff.
- Côte d’Ivoire are the first host nation to reach the CAF Africa Cup of Nations final since Egypt in 2006, who won the trophy that year on penalties against Côte d’Ivoire after a 0-0 draw. Five of the last six host nations to reach the final have won the tournament, the exception being Nigeria in 2000 (drew 2-2 with Cameroon, lost 4-3 on penalties).
- Nigeria are playing in their eighth Africa Cup of Nations final, only Egypt and Ghana (both 9) have played in more such games in the competition (excluding final groups). The Super Eagles have been victorious in two of their last three (1994 and 2013, lost on penalties in 2000) having lost their three beforehand (1984, 1988 and 1990).
- All four of Côte d’Ivoire’s previous CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals have ended goalless and gone to penalties – they won two of those shootouts (1992 and 2015, both vs Ghana) and lost two (2006 vs Egypt and 2012 vs Zambia).
- Côte d’Ivoire have won 17 of their last 18 matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations when scoring the first goal (D1) – their last such defeat was in the 2010 quarter-final against Algeria, losing 3-2. Nigeria, meanwhile, are unbeaten in 22 AFCON games when scoring first (W19 D3) since a 3-1 loss to Egypt in 2010.
- The two most common scorelines in CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals are 1-0 (eight times) and 0-0 (seven times) – since 2002, nine of the 11 finals have ended in one of those scorelines, with the other two 2-1 wins for Tunisia in 2004 and Cameroon in 2017.
- Since the last time they conceded three goals in a CAF Africa Cup of Nations match (1-3 vs Egypt in 2010), Nigeria have only conceded 16 goals in 28 games at AFCON (0.57 per game). Only eight of those 16 goals have come in open play, including just one at this year’s tournament.
- William Troost-Ekong has scored from four of his five shots on target at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations overall for Nigeria, converting two penalties at this year’s tournament. He’s one of only four Nigerians to score two penalties at a single AFCON, along with Samuel Ojebode (1976), Jay-Jay Okocha (2004) and Victor Moses (2013), although, excluding shootouts, the last penalty scored in an AFCON final was in 1988 (Emmanuel Kundé for Cameroon vs Nigeria).
- All six of Côte d’Ivoire’s goals at AFCON 2023 have been scored by different players (Fofana, Krasso, Kessié, Adingra, Diakité and Haller), they last had more goal scorers in a single edition in 2008 (8).
- Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen has had 24 shots at the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, although he’s only managed one goal so far (4% conversion rate). Since 2010, the only players to attempt more shots at a single AFCON tournament are Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan (25 shots, 1 goal in 2013) and Cameroon’s Vincent Aboubakar (31 shots, 8 goals in 2021).
- Côte d’Ivoire’s Evan Ndicka has completed 367 passes at this year’s CAF Africa Cup of Nations – since 2010, that is a record by a player at a single tournament. In an AFCON final in that time, the most passes completed by a player is 81 by Senegal’s Kalidou Koulibaly in 2021 vs Egypt.
- Ola Aina has created seven chances for Nigerian teammate Victor Osimhen at this year’s CAF Africa Cup of Nations – it’s the most by one teammate to another at an AFCON tournament since 2013, when Charles Kaboré created nine chances for Aristide Bancé for Burkina Faso.
