Nigeria Vs South Africa . AFCON Semi Finals , 2023 Edition .

Venue -Bouake , Ivory Coast

Nigeria faces South Afirca in the semi finals of the on going AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast . To get this stage , Nigeira eliminated Cameroun 2-0 and Angola 1-0 in a fiercely contested round of 16 and quarter finals , while South Africa , edged out pre- tournament favourites , the Atlas Lions of Morocco 2-0 and and minnows Cape Verde , via penalties after a goalless draw respectively to reach the semi finals .

Despite spending 30 years banned from the competition, due to the apartheid, South Africa has since emerged as a footballing powerhouse. They were crowned AFCON champions at their inaugural tournament in 1996, and went on to finish second and third in 1998 and 2000.
Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the 2021 edition of the competition, and will be keen to make up for lost time this year..

In today’s encounter against a formidable foe , South Africa in Bouake , it would recalled that in 1984 edition hosted by Ivory Coast , Nigeira played the semi finals too with Egypt that year and won via penalties 8-7 after a 2-2 draw , only to lose in the finals against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun 3-1 , when they were really Indomitable , not now .

A brief history of the soccer rivalry and head to head count , between Nigeira and South Africa dates back to 1992 to 2000 AFCON Co- hosted by Ghana / Nigeria , , Nigeria beat the Bafana Bafana by 2-0 goals , that was during the playing days of Lucas Radebe , their former Captain as well as former Leeds United player who once said that he likes Lagos as a town when journalists interviewed him that year , , he may not have been to the ghetto areas like Ajegunle , Makoko in Yaba Ijora etc. Hahahahaha. and also Mark Fish . I was privileged to watch the AFCON 2000 editon matches LIVE at the Main Bowl of the National Stadium , Surulere , ncluding the semi finals against South Africa , which Nigeria won 2-0..

The two sides have come face to face 14 times, with the first fixture coming in 1992.
They last met at the 2019 edition of AFCON held in Egypt. Both sides qualified for the Round of 16, with Nigeria finishing second of Group B and South Africa finishing third in Group D.

Bafana Bafana met hosts Egypt in the Round of 16 and beat them 1-0, whilst the Super Eagles overcame Cameroon with a 3-2 victory thanks to a winning goal from Alex Iwobi. The sides then found themselves head-to-head in the quarter-finals, battling it out for a place in the final four.

A first-half goal from Samuel Chukwueze set Nigeria up nicely, before Bongani Zungu equalised with 20 minutes to play. However, it was the Super Eagles who emerged victorious as William Troost-Ekong netted a last-minute winner.
Nigeria went on to lose 2-1 to eventual champions Algeria in the semi-finals, but secured a third-place finish with a 1-0 win over Tunisia.
The quarter-final meeting was South Africa’s AFCON fixture for four years, following their failure to qualify for the 2021 edition of the competition.
Nigeria currently come out on top when it comes to head-to-head performance, having won 7 games and drew 5 and lost 2..

Let’s also look at the present form as well as each teams preparedness prior to ths semi finals . Luckily for Nigeria , Victor Osiminehn is back after a stomach problem ,
There are no fresh injury concerns for the Super Eagles.
Meanwhile , on the other hand , Hugo Broos believes that South Africa does not need star players to over come the quality of stars of the Super Eagles , he may be true , though his side defence is largely made up of Mmaelodi Sundowns of South African players but after playing a goalless draw with Cape Verde , it seems he has to thinker his attack for today s encounter .

On the the goalkeeping side , Ron Williams football goalkeeping skills against Cape Verde in the quarter finals where he was able to save four penalties out of five , is something out of this world in a tournament of this magnitude , the Super Eagles should not allow today’s match to enter into penalty shoot out as ot may not favour with the eagle eyed Williams . Though Stanley Nwabali have made superb save s in previous matches especially àgaisnt Angola Cameroun and Equatorial Guinea , but we may not be sure of his skills in stopping penalties for now .
The winners of the Nigeria vs South Africa game face the winners between hosts Ivory Coast and DR Congo, who also faceoff in Yamoussoukro Wednesday . .

Score Precious for this match , we may not expect so much goals in this match as the two teams are very good defensively with South Africa having four clean sheets so far and Nigeria as well .

Predictions – Nigeria 2-1 , 1-0 or 2-2 or . Over 1.5 goals or Under 0.5 goals .

Happy Viewing and Happy Humps day that’s Wednesday .

@UcheFreetips . (2024 ,C).