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AFCON 2023: Intriguing knock-out matches unveiled for 16 Nations

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson
After a competitive show of soccer brilliance among 24 nations in 32 games, 16 teams consisting of the top two performers of each Group-A to F plus four best losers are set to continue their campaign in search for the 34th Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) glory. With stakes being high, Alusine Rehme Wislon in this article detailed how the teams’ qualified, total goals scored, and what lies ahead. Interestingly, some AFCON regular suspects notably Algeria, Ghana and Tunisia were sent packing early after they failed to qualify form the group stage without registering any win. Algeria, Ghana and Tunisia respectively bowed to Mauritian, Cape Verde and Zambia 1-0, 2-1 and 1-0 while underrated teams like Equatorial Guinea and Cape Verde announced their presence as title competitors by topping their respective groups A and B with seven points each. The 32 group games produced a total of 89 goals with Equatorial Guinea(9), defending champions Senegal(8) and Cape Verde(7) accounting for most goals giving advantage to Equatorial Guinea’s skipper Emilo Nsue Lopez (34) as the current highest goal scorer with five goals so far. Defending champions Senegal solely won all their three group matches followed by Angola, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco and Nigeria who won two games each, while the other 10 teams including host Cote D’Ivoire and the three other best losers advanced to the knockout stage with at least three points. Meanwhile, eight knockout matches have been scheduled to be played by 16 nations from Saturday, January 27 to Thursday, January 30 across six Ivorian stadiums with two time quarterfinalists Angola facing off newbies Namibia in the knockout opener match while three time AFCON champions Nigeria and five time winners Cameroon have been paired in another fixture. Equatorial Guinea who shared the spoils with Nigeria before stunning Guinea Bissau and Cote D’Ivoire in the group stage with an unbeaten run will face Guinea while record AFCON title holders Egypt will meet DR Congo on Monday. The next day, host Cote D’Ivoire who managed to qualify as one of the four best losers with three points will take on the reigning champions Senegal while Cape Verde who topped group B ahead of Egypt and Ghana will meet Mauritania. On the other hand, Morocco, who conceded one goal and topped their group with seven points, faced the 1996 AFCON champions South Africa while Mali and Burkina Faso clashed in the other match as the respective winners progressed to the semi-finals scheduled to begin on February 2.

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