Facts & Figures

• Nigeria has an impressive record against Angola ahead of their quarter-final clash at Friday’s TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Abidjan, Cafonline reports.

• The Palancas Negras, who have been one of the surprise teams of the competition so far, will be seeking to stop the Super Eagles in their match to be played in the Ivorian capital city.

• Below are some of the statistics and information on the game:

• This will be the first-ever encounter between Nigeria and Angola at the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Their last meeting in any competition dates back to January 2018 at the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championships, with the Super Eagles winning 2-1 after extra time in the quarter-final.

• Angola’s last victory against Nigeria was a World Cup qualifier in June 2004, which ended 1-0 thanks to the winning goal by Angola’s all-time top-goal scorer Akwa.

• Nigeria are playing in their 11^th quarter-final match at the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations, no team have ever played in more games at this stage of the competition (Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Tunisia also 11).

• Nigeria has won its last three AFCON games without conceding; it has never won four consecutive matches in a single edition.

• Angola have won their last three matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations – a fourth victory at AFCON 2023 would see them equal their total number of wins across all eight of their previous tournament appearances combined (P26 W4 D12 L10).

• Angola have won their last two AFCON matches without conceding; they’ve never previously kept three consecutive clean sheets in the competition.

• Nigeria is the team with the second-highest Expected Goals total at the 2023 TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (7.5 xG), and the side with the lowest Expected Goals faced total at this edition (1.6 xGA).

• Following his second brace at AFCON 2023, against Namibia during the last timeout, Gelson Dala is the joint-top goal scorer (4) for Angola in a single edition of the tournament, along with Manucho (four goals in 2008).

• Ademola Lookman scored his first ever TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations goals (2) against Cameroon in the last 16. He could become the fourth Nigerian to score three or more goals in the knockout rounds of a single AFCON edition, after Odion Ighalo in 2019 (4), Jay-Jay Okocha in 2004 (3) and Rashidi Yekini in 1994 (3).

• Suppose Angola’s Gelson Dala scores a fifth goal at AFCON 2023 (joining top scorer Emilio Nsue). In that case, two players will have scored five or more goals in consecutive AFCON tournaments, after Toko–Ekambi (5) and Aboubakar (8) for Cameroon at AFCON 2021 – more than the number of players (3) that scored as many as five goals in the previous ten editions between 2002 and 2019 (Samuel Eto’o in 2006 and 2008, Gedo in 2010 and Odion Ighalo in 2019, all five goals).