AFCON 2023: Why Nigeria Must Defeat South Africa in the Battle of Bouake

** As History Favours Super Eagles over Bafana Bafana

By Harry Awurumibe, Editor-in-Chief, Abuja

As Africans and the entire football followers across the globe wait with bated breath for the start of the first semi-final match of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Cotè d Ivoire 2023 which pitched two African giants Nigeria and South Africa, Super Eagles are condemned to beat Bafana (The Boys) in Bouake on Wednesday evening to maintain their dominance over the less illustrious opponents.

On paper, Nigeria with the armada of talented overseas-based players like the reigning African Best Player Victor Osimhen; Seria A outfit-Atalanta BC star;  Ademola Lookman; FC Nantes winger Moses Simon; AC  Milan forward Samuel Chukwueze; FC Porto left-winger Zaidu Sanusi and English Premier League players Alexander Iwobi,Calvin Bassey, Olaoluwa Aina and Frank Onyeka among others,  have the quality to defeat South Africa when both countries meet in Bouake on Wednesday night.

Indeed, the encounter against South Africa in Bouake is more than a football contest as the Super Eagles will be carrying the hopes of over 230 million Nigerians who will be expecting the team to go all out to win the match and book the ticket for the final and by extention lift the AFCON trophy on Sunday, February 11, 2024.

Also, victory for Nigeria over South Africa will not only bring joy in the hearts of Nigerians in the country going through harsh economic situation but will be a big relief for Nigerians in diaspora especially thousands of Nigerian citizens living in South Africa who are as at the time of filing this report being bullied in the social media and physically by some of their South African hosts, a situation which has made the Nigerian Embassy in South Africa to issue a travel advisory to Nigerians in the South African nation.

For South Africa, this match will be a barometer to measure the much-vaunted South African Premier Division, officially referred to as the Premiership organised since 1996. It was founded by South African top football administrators Kaizer Motaung, owner of Kaizer Chiefs FC; Jomo Sono, owner of Jomo Cosmos FC and Irvin Khoza, the Chairman of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and one of its clubs, Orlando Pirates.

It’s on record that all the 27 registered players of Bafana Bafana in the on-going AFCON in Cotè d Ivoire are from the South African football league with the bulk of the starters plying their trade in current league champions Mamelodi Sundowns owned by CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe.

Should South Africa beat Nigeria, it will be testament that the country’s league has overtaken others in the continent including Nigeria and also North African countries of Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria which used to be the best league in Africa.

But with their defence having been breached only once after five matches in this tournament, and considering their vast superiority in the record of previous encounters, Nigeria’s Super Eagles have the favourite tag going into Wednesday’s Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against South Africa in Bouake.

Wednesday’s game will be the 15th clash between both countries at full international level. Nigeria have won seven of the previous 14 matches, with five of those matches drawn and two by South Africa.

Apart from having to deal with the incredible energy, effervescence and pace of Africa Player of the Year Victor Osimhen, another major problem that the Bafana Bafana will be up against early, in-game and at the latter stages is the intractability of wing-terrors Ademola Lookman and Moses Simon.

Lookman, with three goals in the tournament so far (all coming in the knockout rounds), plus assisting Osimhen to score the equalizer against Equatorial Guinea, and Simon (with two assists) can be fleeting and entirely unpredictable for any defence, with both switching wings at will.

A stingy rearguard, marshalled by on-field captain William Ekong, has been able to provide all the answers to a number of tricky questions by the opposition in their last four matches, and looks as solid as the Berlin Wall at the height of its glory.

Goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali, who plays his club football in South Africa’s Chippa United, and who was thrown into the forefront as number one at this competition despite only one previous cap, said he would have a sweet day stopping all efforts by the Bafana Bafana and then seeing them shunted to the third-place match.

“I know them and they know me. It will be an interesting evening in Bouake.”

Calvin Bassey, Semi Ajayi, Zaidu Sanusi and Olaoluwa Aina are the other pegs in that rearguard, and the attack-minded Aina offers even more problems for the 1996 champions.

Ranked 42nd in the world and 12th in Africa (as against South Africa’s global ranking of 66th and 12th in the world), the Super Eagles are unbeaten in 10 competitive matches over the past 10 months, and even achieved a rare win in a friendly game when they edged Mozambique in Portugal in October 2023.

As far as the Africa Cup of Nations go, Nigeria is aiming for a fourth star on its crest, while the Bafana (Boys) are only aiming for a second triumph, following their win on home soil 28 years ago. Even that win has always been downplayed by Nigerians as it happened in the absence of Cup holders Nigeria, who were stopped from travelling to the Rainbow Nation by military strongman Sani Abacha following a spat with President Nelson Mandela over the execution of environmental rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa and some others in November 1995.

The first meeting between both countries was on 10th October 1992, when Richard Owubokiri opened the floodgates of goals in a 4-0 win for Nigeria at the National Stadium, Lagos. Rashidi Yekini scored a brace. It was a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match. The return leg at the FBN Stadium in Johannesburg ended scoreless.

Nigeria spanked South Africa 2-0 in the semi-finals of the 2000 AFCON they co-hosted with Ghana, with Tijani Babangida scoring both goals, and four years later, an Eagles’ team wounded by Morocco in its first match descended heavily on the Bafana, beating the latter 4-0 in a group phase match in Monastir, Tunisia.

Four years ago, in the AFCON quarter-finals, the Eagles edged the Bafana 2-1 in Cairo, with the goals scored by Samuel Chukwueze and William Ekong. Both players will be in Bouake with Ekong to lead the squad on the field and Chukwueze likely to play some part in the proceedings.

NIGERIA vs SOUTH AFRICA MATCHES AT A GLANCE

* 10 Oct 1992: Nigeria 4 South Africa 0 (1994 WCq, Lagos)

* 16 Jan 1993: South Africa 0 Nigeria 0 (1994 WCq, Johannesburg)

* 10 Feb 2000: Nigeria 2 South Africa 0 (AFCON semi-final, Lagos)

* 31 Jan 2004: Nigeria 4 South Africa 0 (AFCON finals, Monastir, Tunisia)

* 17 Nov 2004: South Africa 2 Nigeria 1 (International Friendly, Durban)

* 1 June 2008: Nigeria 2 South Africa 0 (2010 FIFA WCq, Abuja)

* 6 Sept 2008: South Africa 0 Nigeria 1 (2010 FIFA WCq, Port Elizabeth)

* 14 Aug 2013: South Africa 0 Nigeria 2 (International Friendly, Johannesburg)

* 10 Sept 2014: South Africa 0 Nigeria 0 (2015 AFCON qualifier, Johannesburg)

* 19 Nov 2014: Nigeria 2 South Africa 2 (2015 AFCON qualifier, Uyo)

* 29 Mar 2015: South Africa 1 Nigeria 1 (International Friendly, Durban)

* 10 June 2017: Nigeria 0 South Africa 2 (2019 AFCON qualifier, Uyo)

* 17 Nov 2018: South Africa 1 Nigeria 1 (2019 AFCON qualifier, Johannesburg)

* 10 July 2019: Nigeria 2 South Africa 1 (2019 AFCON q-final, Cairo).