The champion of the African Cup of Nations, the continent’s most important football organization, will be determined on Sunday, February 11. In the final of the 34th tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Nigeria and the host Ivory Coast will face each other.
The final match, which will be played at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium with a capacity of 60 thousand people in the city of Abidjan, will start at 23.00 GMT. The match will be broadcast live on TV8.5 channel.
NIGERIA Undefeated IN THE FINAL
Nigeria, which was in Group A and started the tournament with a draw with Equatorial Guinea (1-1), beat Ivory Coast and Guinea Bissau with scores of 1-0 and advanced to the last 16 rounds. Nigeria, which got a ticket to the quarter-finals by beating Cameroon 2-0 in the only match in which it scored more than one goal, beat Angola with a single goal and advanced to the semi-finals. In the semi-final match, which ended in a 1-1 draw in the normal time and overtime, Nigeria won 4-2 on penalties against South Africa and succeeded in advancing to the final for the 8th time in the cup’s history.
IVORY COAST HAD A BAD START, WANTS TO END WITH A CUP
Ivory Coast, which was in Group A and beat Guinea Bissau 2-0 in the opening match of the tournament, disappointed its fans when it lost 1-0 to Nigeria and 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea in its next matches. Ivory Coast, which managed to get out of the group as one of the third best teams, made a critical decision and parted ways with French coach Jean-Louis Gasset.
Matched with the last champion Senegal in the last 16 rounds, Ivory Coast advanced to the round by giving its opponent a 5-4 advantage in the penalty shoot-out in the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw in the regular time and extra time.
120+2 in the quarter finals that went to overtime. Ivory Coast beat Mali 2-1 with the goal it scored in the minute, and defeated the Democratic Republic of Congo 1-0 in the semi-finals and became Nigeria’s opponent in the final.
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL COUNTRY IS EGYPT
Egypt, which has enjoyed the championship 7 times in the history of the tournament, stands out as the most successful team. Egypt won the cup 7 times, in 1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 and the last one in 2010. In the tournament, where Cameroon won the cup 5 times and Ghana 4 times, Nigeria won the championship in 1980, 1994 and 2013, and Ivory Coast won the championship in 1992 and 2015.
7 MILLION DOLLARS AWARD TO THE CHAMPION TEAM
The team that wins the cup in the final to be played tomorrow will also receive a prize money of 7 million dollars. In the tournament, the finalist team will leave with 4 million dollars, while the semi-finalist teams won 2.5 million dollars.
7 FOOTBALL PLAYERS FROM SUPER LEAGUE IN THE FINAL
There are 7 players from the Super League teams in the squads of the two countries that will duke it out in the final.
Bright Osayi-Samuel (Fenerbahçe), Paul onuachu (Trabzonspor), Kenneth Omeruo (Kasımpaşa) and Ahmed Musa (Sivasspor) are with the Nigerian National Team, Nicolas Pepe (Trabzonspor), Max Gradel (Gaziantep FK) and Serge Aurier, who was transferred to Galatasaray. will share the excitement of the championship with the Ivory Coast National Team.