Nigeria faces Egypt in round 1 of the African Cup of Nations group stage. The match will be played on Tuesday, January 11th at Stade Omnisport Roumdé Adjia (Garoua)
Yes, I remember: at two of the last three Cups of Nations, 70-80% of matches in the group stage ended with Under 2.5 goals scored. But there were several reasons for that: the top teams rarely played against each other because they were in different groups, and the outsiders increased the low-scoring statistics in their head-to-head matches because they did not have quality players in the attacking groups. Our situation is slightly different. Nigeria and Egypt are potential winners of the Cup of Nations. But they will cross paths only in the 1st round. The stakes are not too high, so there is no urgent need to shut out in order to win. Sudan and Guinea Bissau are the providers of points in this group. Coaches can let their best forwards play bright football. Why not?
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Given that there will be many stars on the pitch, the bet on an exchange of goals scored is definitely a profitable choice. The main hope of Egypt is Salah. It will be superfluous to talk about the Egyptian. I will only note that this season he began to score more difficult goals and create scoring chances for himself. Even if his national team looks pale in the attack, he is capable of scoring out of the blue (this was not the case before). And Trezeguet from Aston Villa, El Neny from Arsenal, and several players from Stuttgart and Galatasaray will help him. There are no stars in defense, as the majority of defenders represent the local championship. An imbalance between the lines? Perhaps it is so. In the recent World Cup qualifiers, Egypt scored in six out of six rounds but conceded in half of the matches, including from modest Angola and Gabon.
At the last Cup of Nations, all the favorites scored in the first round. That is, they were motivated to play football and got down to business as soon as possible. There is no accumulated fatigue as such, and there is no teamwork that could contribute to a reliable game in defense. There are only great attacking players who want to win the cup. By the way, the national team of Nigeria has not been inclined to low production lately: in the qualification for this Cup, Super Eagles tied 4-4 against Sierra Leone, beat Lesotho (4-2), and conceded from Benin (2-1). As for the qualification for the World Cup, the Nigerians did not hold back Cape Verde (2-1 and 1-1) and CAR (0-1). It is likely that both Nigeria and Egypt will choose offensive tactics, which will lead to an exchange of goals scored.
Prediction for the match: Both teams to score — yes
