The ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon is gradually reaching its peak. The organizer of the football tournament, CAF, has released the AFCON 2021 Round of 16 fixtures.
Interestingly, the most enterprising team in the tournament, the Super Eagles of Nigeria, have been paired with one of the most compact teams in the continent, Tunisia for the knockout stage of the competition.
Tunisia started its campaign in Group F alongside Mali, Mauritania, and The Gambia. They almost crashed out of the tournament after recording a 1-0 controversial defeat at the ends of Mali, and a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Gambia. But their 4-0 victory over Mauritania was enough to help them scale through to the next round as best losers.
On Sunday, January 23 at 20:00, Tunisia will come against Nigeria who won all their games in Group D including a 1-0 victory over Egypt. The Super Eagles’ performance in the group stage has made the team one of the favorites to win the title if not the favorites.
Recall that before the tournament, most people predicted that Senegal, the highest-ranked team in the continent would win the tournament or the host, Cameroon, but with a 100 percent record in the group stage, Nigeria has certainly made itself a team to beat.
Hence, Nigeria vs Tunisia knockout game is one of the AFCON 2021 Round of 16 fixtures to watch out for.
Another AFCON 2021 Round of 16 fixture that will be interesting to watch is the knockout game between Egypt and Ivory Coast.
Egypt are the record winner of AFCON. Though they had a shaking start in the 2021 edition of the tournament, they are never pushovers as far as AFCON is concerned.
Recall that they lost their opening group game against Nigeria but went on to record a 1-0 victory over Guinea-Bissau and another 1-0 victory over Sudan to scale through to the AFCON 2021 round of 16.
Unfortunately for Mohamed Salah’s led Egyptian squad, they are going against Ivory Coast, one of the most organized teams in the tournament.
Unlike Egypt which lost their opening game in the tournament, Ivory Coast did not record any defeat in the group stage of the tournament. The worst they recorded was a 2-2 draw with Sierra Leone.
Before then, they beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 in their opening group match and went on to knock out the reigning champions of the tournament, Algeria, with a 3-1 victory.
Indeed, it will be interesting to see how Tunisia will survive against the in-form Super Eagles of Nigeria. Also, the world would want to see how Mohamed Salah would lead Egypt to conquer Ivory Coast on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, at 17:00.
Below are the AFCON 2021 Rounds of 16 fixtures:
23 January:
- Burkina Faso vs Gabon
- Nigeria vs Tunisia
24 January:
- Guinea vs the Gambia
- Cameroon vs COMOROS
25 January:
- Senegal vs Cape Verde
- Morocco vs Malawi
26 January
- Ivory Coast Vs Egypt
- Mali vs Equatorial Guinea
