Author: Mayowa Kufile
“In January, there’s a little tournament in Africa”, these are the words of Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in 2021 as regards the biggest football competition in the continent, and a Twitter user @EmeritusTolu called it a “useless tournament” due to its timing. Whether you believe it is “little” or “useless”, is up for debate but one thing the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup Of Nations has shown is that even its greatest critics would have to be staunch haters not to have enjoyed the AFCON group stage that had it all. We have witnessed breathtaking moments of football, heartache…
AFCON GROUP D: Algeria (30), Angola (117), Burkina Faso (57), Mauritania (105) FIFA ranking in bracket. If there is ever a group I believe will not produce a third-best-placed team, it has to be this group because of the gap between the two top teams and the other two teams. Algeria might have failed to qualify from their group in 2022, but you don’t expect lightning to strike twice for the Desert Foxes. Alongside the semi-finalist from the last edition, Burkina Faso, this should make it an easy passage for both teams. Angola and Mauritania will likely not pick up…
AFCON GROUP C: Cameroun (46), Gambia (126), Guinea (80), Senegal (20) FIFA ranking in bracket Group C looks like an entertaining one because this group contains two of the last three winners of this competition (Cameroun in 2017 and Senegal in 2022), coupled with the addition of reawakening dark horses Guinea and one of the surprise packages last time out The Gambia, we are in for some mouthwatering games in this group. Group C Fixtures Jan. 15th: Senegal vs Gambia (15:00 WAT) Jan. 15th: Cameroun vs Guinea (18:00 WAT) Jan. 19th: Senegal vs Cameroun (18:00 WAT) Jan. 19th: Guinea vs…
Guide To GROUP B: Egypt (33), Cape Verde (73), Ghana (61), Mozambique (111) FIFA ranking in bracket Egypt are the most successful nation in the history of the AFCON with seven wins to their name and will hope to go one step better than the second-place finish they had last time in Cameroun. Ghana failed to win a single game at the last AFCON as they finished bottom of their group and with a Cape Verde team most times posing a threat to the big boys, the Ghanaians will need to up their game to avoid a repeat of such.…
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 On paper, group A looks like a mere formality for the top two teams (Nigeria and Host, Cote D’Ivoire), and barring any disaster, these two teams should navigate their way out of this group. However, Equatorial Guinea will fancy their chance as an underdog and hope lightning strikes again after they found themselves in a similar situation at the last AFCON in 2021, where they surprisingly finished second behind Cote D’Ivoire and ahead of Sierra Leone and…
.What a year 2023 has been for an average Nigerian, the country’s masses started the year looking for where to get cash because of the scarcity of the currency due to a brouhaha between the former CBN governor and the court over the change of new naira notes. So, when an average Nigerian tells you that the only thing that unites us as a nation or makes us happy is “football” (sports generally), you must agree. Nigeria Sports in 2023 has been mixed generally. The Nigeria male basketball team failed to qualify for the FIBA World Cup that was held…