{"id":143463,"date":"2024-01-25T17:30:36","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T17:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/01\/25\/afcon-title-contenders-showcase-defensive-chops-concede-just-once-in-group-stage\/"},"modified":"2024-01-25T17:30:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T17:30:36","slug":"afcon-title-contenders-showcase-defensive-chops-concede-just-once-in-group-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/01\/25\/afcon-title-contenders-showcase-defensive-chops-concede-just-once-in-group-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON title contenders showcase defensive chops; concede just once in Group Stage \u2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) group stage has come to an end and the round of 16 stage is set to roll out this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>A handful of exciting games involving some of the continent\u2019s best teams will be played out over the coming days with Nigeria taking on Cameroon and Senegal taking on host nation Cote D\u2019Ivoire.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the competition, defending AFCON champions Senegal and 2022 FIFA World Cup semifinalist Morocco were considered the top contenders with Mali tipped as the dark horse contender.<\/p>\n<p>All three have lived up to expectations as all three have qualified to the round of 16 with all three nations conceding just a goal across three group games.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco drew 1-1 with DR Congo while beating Zambia and Tanzania and Senegal beat Guinea 2-0 and The Gambia 3-0 but conceded its 3-1 win over Cameroon.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_578953\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/hamaritraore-1200-celebratesg.webp.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-578953\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mali celebrate goal Photo Courtesy: Hamari Traore \u00a9 Backpagepix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_579349\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/3872250-78677928-2560-1440-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-579349\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Morocco Photo Courtesy: Eurosport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nigeria surprisingly joined the elite defensive group by spotting the same record after conceding just a goal (against Equatorial Guinea via 1-1 draw) en route to setting up a round of 16 stage tie against Cameroon.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_578891\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/132332282_gettyimages-1927822503.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-578891\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Camara celebrates goal with Sadio Mane Photo Courtesy: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Super Eagles beat AFCON host Cote D\u2019Ivoire 1-0 and Guinea-Bissau 1-0.<\/p>\n<p><!-- AI CONTENT END 1 --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) group stage has come to an end and the round of 16 stage is set to roll out this weekend. A handful of exciting games involving some of the continent\u2019s best teams will be played out over the coming days with Nigeria taking on Cameroon and Senegal taking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AFCON title contenders showcase defensive chops; concede just once in Group Stage \u2013 - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/01\/25\/afcon-title-contenders-showcase-defensive-chops-concede-just-once-in-group-stage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFCON title contenders showcase defensive chops; concede just once in Group Stage \u2013 - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) group stage has come to an end and the round of 16 stage is set to roll out this weekend. 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