NIGERIA VS SOUTH AFRICA – AFCON SEMI-FINAL REVIEW
The Super Eagles of Nigeria face-off against South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in an epic African Cup of Nation (AFCON) semi-final clash on Wednesday February 7th, 2024.
South Africa, last played and AFCON semi’s in 2000, and that was against their rivals today – Nigeria. They faced Nigeria in Lagos, where they were humbled by a 2:0 scoreline. Since that time, this will be the first time they’ll be making their return into the semis, and it’s an opportunity to avenge that 2000, defeat.
Ahead of this one, Nigeria boasts of so much experience, as they’ll be playing in their 16th semi-final of this competition. Only the Pharoahs of Egypt, have played in more semi’s than the Super Eagles. However, it’s disappointing that the Eagles have only managed three trophies, despite these many semi-final appearances.
The Bafana Bafana are quite confident going into this one after showing character against a resilient Cape Verde side in the quarter finals. They have William Ronwen ias goalkeeper, who’s one of the competition’s revelations, tied with Nigeria’s Stanley Nwabali at four clean sheets each.
While Bafana Bafana have struggled to score in most of their outings, Nigeria on the other hand have been electric in attack. Osimhen’s less scoring has been covered up for by Lookman and Simon. Their bench is quite loaded with some talent and pace, contrary to a south African side who just have more of confidence and pedigree.
If Nigeria’s defense must been broken-loose tonight, South Africa’s attack line will have to do more against a team that has only conceded once all competition. This Nigerian team has faced some of the strongest teams in the competition like Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Angola, and haven’t conceded against any of these sides. Therefore South Africa knows they have big shoes to fill.
Nonetheless, Hugo Broos’ men don’t typically concede many goals. As such, they’ll want to sit back, defend and then hit Nigeria on a counter, or maybe just guide the game into extra time or penalties, where they’re more confident and ruthless.
In all, it’s going to be an exciting showdown and we don’t expect many goals in one.
Game Date:
Game Time : 6:00 PM CAT
Venue: Bouaké Stadium
Editor’s Prediction: Nigeria 1:1 South Africa (Goes through). What are your predictions?
