AFCON: No escape for Sudan, Eagles set to soar

Super Eagles

Super Eagles

The Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Falcons of Sudan will clash today in their second match in Group D at the ongoing African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cameroon.

The Eagles are clearly the favourite to carry the day as everything favours them in today’s epic clash.

The Nigerian side soared over the Pharaoh of Egypt 1-0 in their opening match in Cameroon while the Sudanese side played out a goalless draw with Guinea Bissau.

Current form, history and everything favour the Eagles to win today. If the Nigerian side will play Sudan the way they played Egypt in their opening match, the Sudanese side will surely crash by many goals, but the Eagles can be complacent at times and if that happens today, there may be surprise.

Nigeria and Sudan have met 14 times with the Super Eagles winning eight of such encounters, drawing four and losing two.

The Eagles rank 5th in Africa and 36th in the world according to FIFA, while Sudan rank 33rd in Africa and 125th in the world.

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Sudan have failed to win any match against teams currently ranked inside FIFA’s top 50 since October 2014, though encouragingly for them, that win came against this game’s opponents Nigeria.

The last time Nigeria and Sudan played was in African Nations Cup in 2018, which the Eagles won 1-0.

The only two times Sudan beat Nigeria were in an AFCON qualifier in 2014 reverse fixture in Sudan which they won by a lone goal after having lost 3-1 in Nigeria; the other time was 28 November, 1963 when Sudan won 4-0.

But today, there is no escape for the Falcons of Sudan as the Eagles set to to soar over them and qualify for the knockout stage.

It will be a shock if the Eagles do not win today. Even a draw will be a disappointing result for the Nigerian side.

Key battle: Albeit without scoring, Moses Simon was instrumental against Egypt on Group D matchday one. He has seen three of his five goals in Nigeria colour come as their last strike, as have his two league goals for club side Nantes this season. He will be up against talented Sudanese stopper Ali Abdallah Abu-Eshrein, who kept a clean sheet on his AFCON group stage debut.
Hot stat: Nigeria have kept a first-half clean sheet in 23 of their last 25 AFCON group phase matches.
Prediction: Super Eagles will emerge victorious today against Sudan.
Kick-off time: 5.00pm Nigeria time
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