Izuchukwu Okosi
The Super Eagles are on a march to reaching the quarter-finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday evening as they face eternal rivals Cameroon in what will be both sides’ eighth meeting at the tournament after seven head-to-head meetings in the AFCON alone (excluding other tournaments, qualifying fixtures and friendlies).
The rivalry began in 1984 incidentally in Abidjan when the Ivorians hosted the tournament for the first time.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelCameroon’s Indomitable Lions, five-time winners of the tournament defeated Nigeria’s Green Eagles – as they were known then – in the final.
Both sides squared off again in the 1988 final of the AFCON in a match that Nigeria’s Henry Nwosu had a goal chalked off as it was deemed to have been scored from an offside position.
The biggest pill for Nigerians to swallow has been the fact that the Lions won the 2000 Final albeit rather controversially after Victor Ikpeba ‘legitimately’ scored a penalty was not acknowledged because his reaction was though he had missed the spot kick.
There was of course no Video Assistant Referee (VAR) then during the Afcon co-hosted by Nigeria and Ghana.
The Super Eagles have won three games in the Afcon and settled for a draw on one occasion.
The Nigerian team defeated Cameroon 1-0 in the third place match of the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal, were 2-1 better than the Cameroonians in the 2004 Afcon hosted by Tunisia while theor last win against the Central Africans was in 2019 when Odion Ighalo, (brace) and Alex Iwobi scored to win the third place.
The Super Eagles laid in wait for the Lions to arrive for the clash at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny stadium and have the advantage of having garnered some fanbase in the city.
This, added to the fact that African Footballer of The Year award winner Victor Osimhen is under immense pressure to exert himself in the tournament after a subdued performance in the group stage adds to the advantage that Eagles have over their opponents.
On their part, Rigobert Song’s men have the luxury of welcoming back to full fitness the duo of Vincent Abubakar and Clinton Njue who are influential in the team but had missed the group stage due to injury setbacks.
It promises to be a grudge duel but Nigerians hope that as the Super Eagles have come to live up to expectations when least expected, they are able to surmount this obstacle towards the ‘Let’s Do It Again’ slogan.
That was exactly the case when they defeated hosts Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 in the group stage in what has been the team’s best game thus far in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The winner of this tie will face Angola who beat Namibia in the first round of 16 match on Saturday evening.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
