Nigeria vs Angola prediction: AFRICA: Africa Cup of Nations – Play Offs betting tips on match 2024-02-01 17:00.
Three-time Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winners Nigeria beat Cameroon 2-0 in the last-16 to cruise through to the quarter-finals – one better than they managed in the previous edition. That was a third consecutive victory in this tournament and with decades of AFCON history under their belt, the Super Eagles enter this match as red hot favourites to progress, backed by their formidable record in AFCON quarter-finals since the introduction of the final eight in 1992 (W9, L1).
Head coach José Peseiro has been adamant that his side aren’t looking any further ahead than their next game, declaring all eight quarter-finalists are genuine title contenders. Despite being coy on his side’s chances, if Nigeria can keep up their impressive run of three clean sheets at this tournament, Peseiro ought to be confident of advancing to the semi-finals, not least because Nigeria have only drawn one scoring blank from their last 12 AFCON fixtures at the finals.
Ironically, Angola’s most recent meeting with Nigeria was in a quarter-final (L 2-1 after extra time), but in the 2018 African Nations Championship which is exclusive to players who represent home nation clubs. The full strength national teams haven’t met in a competitive setting since qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but it’ll be Angola’s most recent history that drives them in their first AFCON quarter-final since 2010, when they hosted the tournament but were dumped out by Ghana.
Having already recorded their most successful group stage at an AFCON, Angola pressed ahead with a 3-0 demolition of Namibia to continue their pursuit of a maiden semi-finals appearance. Their eight-game unbeaten run in competition football (W4, D4) includes three as pre-match outsiders (2-0 v Burkina Faso, 1-1 v Algeria, 0-0 v Cape Verde), so there are no shortage of recent upsets to further inspire them to an historic triumph.
Players to watch: After Ademola Lookman set up Victor Osimhen for Nigeria’s first goal of the tournament, Osimhen returned the favour in their most recent outing. With doubles in their wins over both Namibia and Mauritania, Gelson Dala has registered the highest Flashscore player rating in two separate matches at this tournament.
Hot streak: Nigeria’s last six games (excluding friendlies) produced under 2.5 total goals.