AFCON 2023 GROUP A:
AFCON 2023 group A features Cote D’Ivoire (49), Equatorial Guinea (88), Guinea-Bissau (103), Nigeria (42) FIFA ranking in bracket
AFCON 2023 Group A Fixtures
Jan 13th: Cote D’Ivoire vs Guinea Bissau (21:00 West Africa Time)
Jan-14th: Nigeria vs Equatorial Guinea (15:00 WAT)
Jan-18th: Equatorial Guinea vs Guinea-Bissau (15;00 WAT)
-18th: Cote D’Ivoire vs Nigeria (18:00 WAT)
Jan-22nd: Guinea-Bissau vs Nigeria (18:00 WAT)
-22nd: Equatorial Guinea vs Cote D’Ivoire (18:00 WAT)
My favorites are…
Nigeria has one of the most fearsome attackers going into the tournament. Still, issues around the team’s other department will likely give the host country, Cote d’Ivoire, the advantage as a favorite to win this group. The Ivoriens will bank on home support as they face the other three teams in this group, and coupled with some exceptional talents in Frank Kessie, Sebastian Haller, Nicklas Pepe, and others, they are most likely to finish top in this group.
Watch out for this game…
It will be the second group game for both teams and if everything acts according to plan (both teams win their opener), Nigeria vs. Cote D’Ivoire will have that look of “winner progress to the knockout round”. Few games in the group stage have the kind of aura this game brings and the player’s power you expect to see on the pitch. The last time these two teams met at this tournament, the Super Eagles of Nigeria prevailed in the quarter-final fixture as they won their third crown in 2013.
The Big Question…
Cote D’Ivoire will host the rest of Africa and will hope to buck the trend of host nations failing to win the continental showpiece as none of the last eight hosts has gone ahead to win the trophy, with Egypt the last host country to win the tournament on home soil (2006).
The Ivoriens have won two AFCON titles, and none has happened on home soil (1992 in Senegal and 2015 in Equatorial Guinea), and the only time they hosted the rest of Africa (1984), they failed to finish in the top four.
Can they buck the trend?
Group A STAR BOY…
This group is filled with well-known players, but none come close to the current CAF Player of the Year, Victor Osimhen. The Nigeria international is one of the most known faces in African football; his rating can be seen in his 8th position at the last Ballon d’Or award ceremony.
Victor Osimhen will hope to lead Nigeria to its fourth crown in what will be his first major tournament for Nigeria as the leading man. The Napoli striker was a backup to Odion Ighalo in 2019, and his only game was a dead-rubber third-placed match against Tunisia, while he was unlucky to miss out on the last tournament in 2021 due to injury.
Osimhen, the “mask man” of Napoli, will hope to set the tournament ablaze with goals and leave a mark on the international scene as he has on club football in Italy.
You might not know this, but…
Guinea Bissau will be participating in their fourth AFCON and hoping to get their first-ever win at this continental showpiece, having lost six of the nine games they have played so far (3 draws) while scoring only two goals.