The State of Play
Nigeria began the tournament in underwhelming form under the management of Jose Peseiro and the criticism ramped up as they were held to a 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea in their opening match. However, they edged past hosts Ivory Coast with a 1-0 win via a fairly fortunate penalty and then edged past a poor Guinea-Bissau side by a goal to nil to progress into the knockout stages.
Much like their opposition, the Cameroonians have been underwhelming and are a leading side that would be classed as underperforming. Rigobert Song’s side, though, managed to make it out of their group with a dramatic 3-2 defeat of The Gambia in a game in which they had trailed with less than five minutes of the 90 to go. They started their campaign with a draw against Guinea that was followed by a 3-1 loss to Senegal.
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Team News
Jose Peseiro switched to a back three ahead of their second game in the group stages against Ivory Coast. The only selection issues up for debate would likely be at wing-back with Zaidu Sanusi a more conservative option over Bright Osayi-Samuel with Ola Aina shifting to the right and Alex Iwobi potentially coming in for Joe Aribo in midfield.
Cameroon’s tournament off the field has been dominated by the antics of Andre Onana and the Manchester United goalkeeper was actually dropped to the bench for their 3-2 victory over Gambia.
Expected Line-ups
Nigeria: Nwabali; Ajayi, Omeruo, Bassey; Osayi-Samuel, Onyeka, Iwobi, Aina; Chukwueze, Osimhen, Simon
Cameroon: Ondoa; Castelletto, Wooh, Tolo; Tchato, Ntcham, Anguissa, Yongwa; Toko-Ekambi, Magri, Nkoudou
What they Said
Jose Peseiro has claimed the headlines once again ahead of this Round of 16 tie, saying he ‘didn’t want it’ with regards to the contract renewal that he was offered but rejected by the Nigerian Football Federation recently.
Rigobert Song went into their game against Gambia ‘unconcerned’ but the Cameroon boss remains under immense pressure, despite reaching the knockout stages. He dismissed pressure as ‘part of the game’ and said ‘I don’t panic, I don’t stress. I listen, I understand the criticism, I know what I have to do, I stay calm,’ last week.
When and How to Watch
This match will be played at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium at 20:00 on Saturday January 27th and will be shown live on Sky Sports. It can be streamed live on the Sky Go app.
Prediction
These are two of the biggest names on the African continent that are both generally underperforming. However, Nigeria come into this one on the back of finding some sort of formula to get over the line. Their opposition were not up to much, though, and Cameroon will hope to have enough quality to hurt The Super Eagles. Nigeria remain slight favourites but it is expected to be a low-scoring encounter, regardless of the end match result.