The Nigerian national team failed to reach the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations (CAF), losing in the 1/8 finals to Tunisia with a score of 0:1.
“Super Eagles”, as Nigerians are traditionally called, were considered one of the favorites of the competition. Perhaps there are not so many stars in their composition now, but their team is quite strong. Nevertheless, Ahmed Musa and the company lost to the Tunisians. And a little earlier, the current holders of the trophy Algerians left the African Cup, having scored only one point in three rounds of the group stage.
At the time of signing the “RG” number, only two participants in the quarterfinal stage of the African Cup were known to the press: Tunisia and Burkina Faso, who defeated Gabon on penalties (1:1, 7:6).
And on the eve of the metro in the top eight had to fight the hosts of the tournament Cameroon and the main discovery of CAN – Comoros team. The debutant of the African Cup reached the playoffs thanks to the victory in the last match of the group stage over Ghana (3:2). Before the meeting with the Cameroonians, the islanders found themselves in a difficult situation: seven football players became infected with the coronavirus, two of which were goalkeepers. Thus, the team did not have healthy goalkeepers left. According to the rules of the tournament, teams are required to enter the field if it has at least 11 players with a negative text for COVID-19. If there is no goalkeeper among them, then any other footballer will take a place in the loan frame.
Not only the Nigerians, but also the current winners of the tournament, the Algerians, could not get into the quarterfinals
Meanwhile, the BBC has nominated ten former and current players from English Premier League clubs for the award for the best African player in the history of the Premier League. The list of candidates includes: Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo, Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham, Crystal Palace), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon, Arsenal), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, ” Chelsea), Michael Essien (Ghana, Chelsea), Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria, Arsenal, West Brom, Portsmouth), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria, Leicester, Manchester City), Sadio Mane (Senegal, Southampton, Liverpool), Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria, Bolton, Hull), Mohamed Salah (Egypt, Chelsea, Liverpool) and Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast, “Manchester city”).