Three reasons why the Super Eagles can win the Africa Cup of Nations

An improving Victor Osimhen

Any team entering into an Africa Cup of Nations with legitimately one of the best strikers in world football should be considered contenders. With an impressive supporting cast, they should be among the favourites. However, the form of Victor Osimhen has left a lot to be desired in this tournament thus far.

The Napoli striker, who has contributed to his own distraction over recent weeks when he confirmed that he has made up his mind on his future and would announce that at the end of the season amid plenty of speculation that he could move to the Premier League, has yet to score in the competition with Nigeria reliant on their impressive defensive record to see them through to the final on Saturday evening.

The 25-year-old, who had scored 21 goals in just 28 caps for The Super Eagles prior to this tournament, has not scored any of the 24 shots that he has taken in the tournament. He has, in mitigation, performed a facilitating role well for the Nigerians since their switch in formation to a back three but his team and the country will be desperately crying out for him to break his AFCON duck.  

There are signs the goal is coming. He had the ball in the net late on to make it 2-0 to Nigeria against South Africa in the semi-finals but that was eventually disallowed to allow Bafana Bafana a penalty down at the other end which took the game into extra-time and pretty much summed up Osimhen’s personal campaign.

However, it is and was a good sign that Osimhen, despite the fairly clumsy finish for that ruled out tap in, was in the right place at the right time and there will be a strong belief a striker of his quality does not go seven competitive games without a goal.

Rock solid defensive work

Nigeria came into the tournament on the back of some poor form and they started it in underwhelming fashion, sharing a 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea in their opening match. After that game, Jose Peseiro immediately switched the formation from a back four to a back three and The Super Eagles have found a very effective balance ever since.

Led by their captain at the back, PAOK Salonika defender William Troost-Ekong, Nigeria have conceded just one goal since that draw with Equatorial Guinea; that goal being the controversial penalty scored by Teboho Mokoena in the semi-final for South Africa the other day.

With Semi Ajayi and Calvin Bassey either side of Troost-Ekong and a variety of options at wing-back, shuttling box-to-box midfielders ably supporting an array of attacking stars, Nigeria have not necessarily stumbled upon but have enjoyed the happy accident of finding a winning formula that they will believe has the control to defeat a team as chaotic as the Ivory Coast.

Banishing the curse of Peseiro

The Portuguese find comedy in the luck of Jose Peseiro and have a range of phrases to describe how often it occurs that a Peseiro-led team eventually falls at the final hurdle. Even when it appears to be an unassailable position, there is a habit of them messing things up.

In 32 years as a manager since he began with Uniao Santarem, Jose Peseiro has only ever won two major trophies: the Egyptian Premier League with Al Ahly and Taca da Liga with Braga. He has been a UEFA Cup runner-up with Sporting and Taca de Portugal finalist with Porto, too. He has an impressive 48.77% win rate in a managerial career that has seen him in charge of 18 different teams – yet no real standout glory to show for it.

The idea of the curse was no more prevalent than when on Wednesday evening, as mentioned, Nigeria believed they had a two-goal advantage just before second-half stoppage-time only for the referee and Video Assistant Referee to intervene – not only to disallow Osimhen’s goal but bring it back for a foul that was actually to be a South African penalty. From 2-0 up to 1-1 in the blink of an eye; it was the ‘Peseisara’.

However, Nigeria battled on through an extra-time where they were slightly the better team but had to settle for the nerve-shredding occasion of a semi-final penalty shootout. The Super Eagles, bar Ola Aina, held their nerve, though, and will believe they have banished the curse that many believe followed their manager.