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Packed and filled with excitement was the National Staidum, Surulere, Lagos on the 8th of March, 1980, Nigeria was hosting the AFCON and had to make do with Tanzania in the opening group stage match of the tournament.
Goals from Mudashiru Lawal, Onyedika and Segun Odegbami saw the then Green Eagles saw off Tanzania 3-1, much to the delight of the crowd.
45 years on, the Super Eagles have now been drawn in another AFCON group that involves Tanzania.
Eleven months away to the 35th Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco, the Super Eagles already know their group phase opponents, following a colourful draw ceremony at the Mohamed V Theatre in Rabat on Monday evening.
The three-time champions must negotiate a group C that also houses Tunisia’s Carthage Eagles, the Cranes of Uganda and the Taifa Stars of Tanzania. The Eagles open their campaign by clashing with the Taifa Stars, just like they did in 1980.
Interestingly, Twenty years later, as co-hosts (with Ghana), Nigeria played Tunisia in their first match of the tournament, beating the Carthage Eagles 4-2 in Lagos. The Eagles went all the way to the Final, losing to Cameroon only after a penalty shootout.
For Uganda, they have always proved a tough nut to crack for Nigeria, including a 2-1 win over the Eagles at the 1978 finals in Ghana that condemned Nigeria to the third-place match. Nigeria won that third-place match after Tunisia abandoned the match in the 42nd minute.
To qualify for the AFCON in Morocco, Nigeria navigated and topped with 11 points a qualifying group of Benin Republic, Libya and Rwanda.
Regarded as a robust hosting to look forward to, the finals that begins on 21st December and ends on 18th January is unique in some ways, including being the first ever to start in a particular year and run into another year. Morocco will play host to Africa again since hosting the 1988 tournament that was won by Cameroon. The North African country was handed the hosting right for the 2015 finals, but ducked at the eleventh hour in the midst of the ebola scare across some nations in the continent.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles hold the record for the most medals from the 68-year-old championship: 16 in 20 previous participations.
They are three-time winners (1980, 1994, 2013), finished as runners-up on five occasions (1984, 1988, 1990, 2000 and 2023), and took the bronze eight times (1976, 1978, 1992, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2019). The Eagles lost out in the quarter-finals in 2008 and were eliminated in the second round in 2021. Only in their debut in 1963, and as Cup holders in 1982, have the Eagles failed to proceed beyond the tournament group phase.
Nigeria have also played a total of 104 matches at the final tournament, 4th overall behind Egypt (111), Cote d’Ivoire (106) and Ghana (105).
For a side that was just 25 minutes away from a 4th AFCON glory at the Alassane Ouattara Ebimpé Olympic Stadium in Abidjan, Cote D’Iviore, the Super Eagles will feel the Morocco edition of the AFCON has arrived with the best timing to erase the last final agony.
Since that final and exit of Jose Peseiro, Nigeria has had coaches from Findi George to Austin Eguavoen and now, Eric Chelle.
The Malian knows that his work is really cut that, success or failure at the World Cup qualifiers will not be enough to keep him in the job if he can’t deliver a 4th AFCON title.
The quality and experience upfront is unquestionable, same as the middle of the park but Eric must swiftly switch up the quality in depth of the backline if he’s to achieve success next January.
The records and antecedents appears to be aligning, the Super Eagles must now fly with big wings to make history repeat itself.
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