The Super Eagles of Nigeria will go head to head against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in today’s second round clash as both sides slug it out for a quarter-final ticket.
Both sides have played at the AFCON final three times 1984, 1988 and 2000 with Cameroon winning on all occasions but the last two meetings at AFCON have ended in Favour of Nigeria, 2004 and 2019.
Below are facts between both sides
The last time both sides played in 2019, Nigeria defeated Cameroon 3-2 with Odion Ighalo scoring twice and providing an assist for Alex Iwobi to score the third and the Winner against Cameroon..
For their 15th consecutive CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournament, Nigeria have reached the knockout stages. Excluding third-place play-off matches, Nigeria have been eliminated in their last two knockout ties (2019 semi-finals, 2021 last 16) after winning four in a row beforehand.
Cameroon’s last two knockout games have gone to penalties (lost in 2021 semi-finals vs Egypt & won in 2021 third-place play-off vs Burkina Faso). Only Côte d’Ivoire (10) have featured in more AFCON penalty shootouts than the Indomitable Lions (9).
Cameroon won two of their first three CAF Africa Cup of Nations matches against Nigeria (D1) but have since lost three of their last four (D1). Indeed, the Indomitable Lions have only lost more AFCON matches against Egypt (4) than they have against Nigeria (3).
Nigeria have won six of their last eight matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (D1 L1) but their only defeat in this sequence was in a 1-0 reverse against Tunisia at the last 16 stage in the 2021 edition.
Cameroon reached the knockout stage of the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations despite conceding six goals in the group stage, their most in the groups since 1996 (7). It was the first time they’d progressed from an AFCON group stage despite having a negative goal difference (5 scored, 6 conceded).
Nigeria have both played in (40), and won (22) more matches in the knockout stages of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations than any other nation.
Excluding own goals, each of Cameroon’s last 21 goals at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations have been scored by players who were playing their club football in either Saudi Arabia (9) or France (12) at the time of scoring; the last player to do so for a non-French or Saudi club was Yaya Banana in 2019, who was playing in Greece.
Victor Osimhen had 13 shots and created four chances in the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations group stage, the most shots and chances created combined of any Nigeria player. Indeed, it’s the most by a Nigeria player in an AFCON group stage that Opta has on record since 2010.
No player created more chances in the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations group stages than Cameroon’s Georges-Kévin Nkoudou (10). It was the most by a Cameroonian player at the group stage of AFCON since Benjamin Moukandjo in 2017 (12).
TheNewsGuru with additional information from CAFonline