Victor Ikpeba’s Nigeria vs Angola AFCON 2023 Quarter-Final Preview

With many of the pre-tournament favourites now knocked out of AFCON 2023, Nigeria find themselves in a great position to go all the way in the tournament ahead of their huge quarter-final match against Angola this weekend. 

The Super Eagles have conceded just one goal all tournament and have slowly but surely gelled as a team over the course of their four games so far, and are now favourites to win the competition – something that very few people predicted a month ago. 

We spoke to AFCON 1994 winner and Bet9ja ambassador Victor Ikpeba ahead of the match for his exclusive preview.

More of the same, please!

I think we’ll stick with the same side as against Cameroon, and rightly so! The boys have performed well so far and have plenty of time to recover in between the matches, so there is no reason, injuries aside, that we should see any different faces in the starting lineup.

We have been solid defensively and our attacking play is improving game on game. We need to stick to these principles and continue giving our best players the platform to shine. Before the tournament there wasn’t the best atmosphere surrounding the national team but now I think as a nation we’ve realised how much quality we have in the squad.

One player who I think deserves his plaudits is the goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali. He is the only player in the squad who plays his club football in Nigeria and he has been calm and composed the entire tournament. It’s great to have some representation from our domestic league at AFCON!

Shoutout to Stanley Nwabali for his incredible performance yesterday! pic.twitter.com/rjHPsHsQe3

— Bet9ja (@Bet9jaOfficial) January 19, 2024

Angola are a dangerous side and have nothing to lose

I think that Angola will bring a lot more to the table than Cameroon, who were absolutely toothless in all honesty. They play at pace and you have to always be careful when you come up against a team who can hit you on the counter when you’re a possession-dominant team. 

They qualified ahead of us for the 2006 FIFA World Cup so there is revenge in the air for that result. Nothing is easy in tournament football and the boys will be very aware of the threat that Angola possess – they play nothing like the sides we would have been expecting to meet at this stage of the tournament and we have to take them seriously.

I predict another 1-0 victory for the Super Eagles!

Victor’s Booking Code: 65HLQHH

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