The State of Play
Nigeria went into this competition on the back of some really underwhelming form and Jose Peseiro, who has rejected a contract extension with The Super Eagles, is still under major pressure. However, they recovered from a slow start drawing against Equatorial Guinea by squeezing past against both Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau before a comfortable 2-0 defeat of the Cameroonians in the Round of 16 the other day.
Angola, under the management of Pedro Goncalves, have played a generally impressive and front foot style of football. They went into the tournament with an ambitious of mindset of going deep into the competition and they have been very impressive thus far with a draw against Algeria being followed up by scoring eight goals in three victories against Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Namibia.
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Team News
Jose Peseiro switched to a back-three system in their second group stage match and the Nigerians are expected to stick with that throughout their campaign. They may well have to make a change in goal, though, after Stanley Nwabali was forced off through injury in their defeat of Cameroon the other day.
Pedro Goncalves was reportedly tempted to drop both Gilberto and Gelsin Dala before their clash with Namibia the other day but they remained with the latter notching a brace and getting an assist. The one change that is expected to be made is goalkeeper, Neblu, who is suspended after being sent off in the 17th minute.
Expected Line-ups
Nigeria: Uzoho; Ajayi, Troost-Ekong, Bassey; Aina, Onyeka, Iwobi, Sanusi; Simon, Osimhen, Lookman
Angola: Signori; Eddie, Gaspar, Buatu, To Carneiro; Fredy, Show, Estrela; Gilbert, Mabululu, Gelson Dala
What they Said
Jose Peseiro has been under pressure throughout this tournament but is seeing The Super Eagles through. He complimented Angola in the build-up to this one: “We are going to face a tough team. We need to do our best to beat them.”
Pedro Goncalves talked of being ‘happy’ with Angola’s defeat of Namibia, especially down to ten men. “We are happy with the victory and the subsequent qualification. We knew that the opponent could make things difficult, even more so when we lost Neblu.”
When and How to Watch
This match will be played at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium at 17:00 on Friday February 2nd and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. It can also be streamed via the Sky Go app.
Prediction
Jose Peseiro has an abundance of attacking options, albeit with a fair few injuries, including one of the best strikers in the world, Victor Osimhen. The switch to a system with wing-backs has seemingly helped their fluency and control in possession. They face an Angolan side that, as mentioned, will seek to be on the front foot as they head into the quarter-finals so a fairly entertaining encounter in which both teams score could be in store on Friday evening.
