We are midway through the African Cup of Nations group stage games and so far, we’ve seen some impressive performances from some of the continents best teams. Nigeria and Cameroon have been two of the most impressive teams in this tournament by far and both have also scored a good number of goals in their first two games. Cameroon has 6 goals already in the tournament, with Nigeria on 4 goals. Only Tunisia has been able to close the gaps on these two teams in terms of goals scored with 5 in their first two group games. With the way things are shaping up right now, we could see two of these big teams clash in the knockout stage of the tournament.
Away from that, let’s look at Nigeria’s upcoming group game against Guinea Bissau on Wednesday. The 3-time AFCON champions will take on Guinea Bissau after winning their first two group games. The Super Eagles are home and dry as far as knockout stage qualification is concerned and the game against Guinea Bissau is only important because they can hold on to the top spot in the group with a win here. Guinea Bissau on the other hand has lost to Egypt and drawn with Sudan in their first two group games so a win against Nigeria on Wednesday will be important to them if they are going to have a chance of knockout stage qualification. Mathematically, they still have a chance to qualify for the knockout stages but that will only happen if they beat Nigeria and Egypt loses to Sudan.
While it might be seen as a difficult task to upset the odds and beat the Super Eagles, I believe Guinea Bissau can pull that off and here’s why. The first reason why I think Guinea Bissau have a winning chance against the Super Eagles is that Nigerian coach Austin Eguavoen is very likely to rest players against Guinea Bissau on Wednesday. The Super Eagles are in a good form right now and have the momentum on their side, but if Eguavoen makes changes to his lineup, they will be weakened. Eguavoen hinted in his last media presser that his players needed to rest so that could mean a potential lineup overhaul against Guinea Bissau. likes of Iheanacho, Moses Simon, Taiwo Awoniyi, Chukwueze and Aribo are rested, then the odds of Guinea beating Nigeria could increase.
Secondly, Guinea Bissau is a tough side to play against. The country has some decent players and if you watched their game against Egypt, you will see how good and organised they are. We all know the Super Eagles can have lapses in concentration while defending and if this happens against Guinea Bissau, the opponents can take advantage of it. Sudan was able to take advantage of a defensive misunderstanding by the Super Eagles defenders to win a penalty and who’s to say Guinea Bissau will not do the same.
After all said and done, each teams performance on the pitch on Wednesday will be a deciding factor in determining the winner. But if Eguavoen does make massive changes to his lineup, then I believe that Guinea Bissau can pull off an upset and beat the Super Eagles.
Photo Credit: Google.
Content created and supplied by: AnnSports (via Opera
News )