Izuchukwu Okosi
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Nigeria will face a third-placed team from Group B (Malawi), Group E (Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone or Algeria) or Group F (Gambia, Mali or Tunisia) in the round of 16 stages of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations after finishing atop Group B.
In this piece, Senior Correspondent IZUCHUKWU OKOSI runs the rule on the teams Austin Eguavoen and his army will likely face in next Sunday’s clash at the Roumde Adjia stadium in Garoua.
A cursory look at the results of the current third placed teams in the tournament that the Eagles would likely face in the round of 16 shows that Malawi lost 1-0 to Guinea, defeated Zimbabwe 2-1 and finished their Group B campaign with a scoreless draw against one of tournament favourites, Senegal.
In Group E, Sierra Leone produced a battling performance to hold defending champions Algeria to a goalless draw and also held the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire to a 2-2 when it see. Ed the Ivoroans would nick the vital win.Sierra Leone has proven to be fearless and it is worth knowing that their results have come against teams considered to be strong cawill conclude their Group matches tonight against Equatorial Guinea.
The last but not the least side currently occupying the third place spot, in Group F, and likely to play Nigeria in the round of 16 is Tunisia.
The Carthage Eagles controversially lost their opening match 1-0 to Mali after some refereeing gaffes saw the match ended twice. The north Africans bounced back to defeat Mauritania 4-0 in their second game in Group F and will conclude the group phase tonight with a match against Gambia.
Going by the results so far of these three teams, it is safe to say that had Tunisia had a fair decision against Mali, they might not have been in the position they find themselves.
The Tunisian side is undoubtedly one of the best sides on the African continent.
Malawi and Sierra Leone have covered themselves in glory and whatever happens after tonight’s matches, they have already earned their stripes.
Sierra Leone held Algeria (current champions) and Cote d’Ivoire (1992 and 2015 champions) to draws while Malawi won their contest with Zimbabwe and drew against Senegal.
These are indeed heartwarming g results and goes to show that the decision to extend the number of participating teams at the tournament from 16 to 24 is justified.
The Africa Cup of Nations is indeed not a ‘small tournament’ as the European clubs and media made it to seem.
So based on their current results subject to whatever happens tonight, the ‘easiest’ team on paper for the Eagles to hope for should be Malawi who despite holding Senegal, only defeated a Zimbabwe side not re homed as one of the best on the continent.
Conversy, Sierra Leone could not be defeated by almighty Algeria and Cote d’Ivoire while Tunisia as stated earlier in this piece were perhaps denied a better result in that mismatch against Mali.
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.
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