The First round of Afcon 2021 have concluded. Notable absentees in the second round are Algeria; the defending champions, and Ghana. They were surprisingly eliminated in the first round.
The second round of Afcon commences Jan. 23rd with Burkina Faso playing Gabon and Nigeria vs Tunisia. These 2 matches will be tightly contested. For the game between Burkina Faso vs Gabon, any team can win. Nigeria will be fancied to beat Tunisia. Nigeria is the only team in the competition that have won all their first round games so far.
Guinea will take on Gambia. This game will be an even affair but Guinea will have the advantage based on experience.High flying Cameroon will hope to see off Comoros.
Senegalese title holes will be tested when they take on Cape Verde. Morocco should see off Malawi but it may not be easy.
If Ivory Coast will win the tournament they must beat Egypt. The match promises to be very interesting. Lastly Mali takes on Equatorial Guinea. Mali definitely have an edge in this one
The super eagles of Nigeria have defeated Sudan to qualify for the next stage of AFCON. Nigeria made a blistering start to the game with their first goal just after 3 mins.
Samue Chukwueze stroked home from a Moses Simon pass. Nigeria continued to press and consequently scored their second goal on the strike of halftime. A Troost-Ekong header bounced off Taiwo Awoniy, beating the Sudanese goalkeeper.
Moses Simon increased Nigeria’s scoreline to 3-0 very early in the second. However the Sudanese got a consolation goal after a penalty was awarded against Nigeria following a foul by Ania in the box.
Nigeria tops the group with 6 points.
In the other game in group D, Egypt narrowly defeated Guinea Bissau by 1 goal to nil. Although Guinea Bissau gave the Egyptians a run for their money, Egypt missed many scoring chances and would have paid dearly but thanks to VAR for disallowing the goal that the Guineas scored 8 minutes from time.
With this win, Egypt moves to second on the table with 3 points. While Guinea Bissau and Sunday occupy the third and fourth position with one point each.
Manchester City have made the double over Chelsea after beating them 1-0 at the Etihad. Overall, the match was a tightly contested affair and it was City that edged it with a De Bruyne goal in the 70th minute. A curled shot to the right hand corner after he escaped from kante and ran at the Chelsea defence before slotting home.
Chelsea also could have taken the lead early in the second half when Lukaku had a one on one with the City goalkeeper but failed to score.
To crown it all Manchester City deserved their, they were slightly the better side.
Manchester City have now moved 13 points clear of Chelsea in second place. Liverpool can reduce the gap to eight points if they win their 2 games in hand.
The super eagles of Nigeria made a very good impression of themselves after they defeated the pharaohs of Egypt 1-0 in in their first game of AFCON 2021.
The super eagles started the game on an offensive note, taking the game to the Egyptians and creating chances. The Egyptian team on the other hand were on the defensive mode and counter attacking when the opportunity came for them.
The Nigerian pressure eventually yielded the first and only goal of the game in the 30th minute. Kelechi Iheanacho volleyed home following a pass from Joe Aribo.
The super eagles dominated the game throughout including the midfield. The pharaohs were reduced to few chances in the game.
Next game for Nigeria is against Sudan on the 15th of January 2022 at 17:00 hours.
