AFCON: Nigeria Lock Horns With Hosts Ivory Coast In Grand Finale

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 actually topped Group A! Drawn as the ‘home team’ for this final but with the majority of the 60,000 spectators in Abidjan’s Alassane Ouattara Stadium against them, Nigeria have already demonstrated they know how to silence a hostile crowd when they defeated host nation Ivory Coast 1-0 at this very venue last month.

That was to be the first of five consecutive games at this tournament in which the Super Eagles didn’t concede a single goal from open play, illustrating where their strengths lie in their pursuit of a 4th 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 1984 AFCON final in Ivory Coast, when they lost 3-1 to Cameroon to finish as runners up.

Even the most optimistic football fan from the Ivory Coast 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 the 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 Ivory Coast, whose playing squad featured current caretaker manager Emerse Faé.

Five of the last six hosts to have contested the final have lifted the trophy – the only exception being the Super Eagles themselves in 2000.

The final will go down today (Sunday) at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium, Abidjan by 9pm Nigeria time.

Players to watch: Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen will spearhead Nigeria’s attack, while Franck Kessie and Sebastien Haller have both provided defining moments In Ivory Coast’s run to the final.