Nigeria’s long quest to defend their Africa Cup of Nations crown will begin in September after the line up for the final phase of qualifiers for Morocco 2015 Africa Cup of Nations was completed last weekend.
Rwanda, who over came a two-legged match-up with Congo winning 4-3 on penalties after it all ended 2-2 on aggregate, will join up in Group A with the Super Eagles, South Africa and Sudan.
The Super Eagles upset the form books when they defeated a highly-rated Ivory Coast side replete with the likes of Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure and Gervinho 2-1 in the semifinal before putting up an effective display to see off Burkina Faso in the final courtesy a Sunday Mba to lift her third title in 33 years.
This time, starting from the qualifiers, there will be no hiding place for the Super Eagles as their group opponents will look to put a clog in their wheel rolling towards a successful defence of their African crown.
Nigeria had an arguably impressive World Cup outing in Brazil and will look to build on that when the qualifiers starting in early September when the Super Eagles welcome the Amavubi of Rwanda to a yet to be named venue.
Supersport.com takes a lot at the Super Eagles group opponents, what is to be expected of them, potential pitfalls and looks at ways to avoid the heart break of 2012 when Nigeria failed to qualify for Gabon/Equatorial Guinea 2012
Group A analysis
Nigeria are clear favourites to progress from this group but the Super Eagles will do well not to underestimate her group opponents who will look to do a number on the reigning African champions.
Rwanda, under new coach Stephen Constantine have made tremendous progress in the few months that he has been in charge.
He has been able to instill some discipline into the Amavubi set up and their giant winning effort against 2014 Chan champions, Libya, who they eliminated 3-0 on aggregate in the first qualifying round is a testament to that.
The win over Congo, after a 2-0 reverse from the first leg in Pointe Noire has given them more belief and they will be looking to add Nigeria to their long list of conquests.
Nigeria beat Rwanda 2-0 on their way to qualifying for the 2013 Afcon in South Africa, but this match up will be a different ball game entirely as both teams are still under transition.
Sudan will be a hard nut to crack considering coach Mohammed Abdallah Mazda and his wards will look to make life difficult for Nigeria. The Super Eagles will hope to revive the spirits of 2006 when Nigeria defeated Sudan 4-0 in Omdurman in 2001.
South Africa are starting a new journey under Ephraim ‘Shakes’ Mashaba who is taking over form Gordon Igesund whose contract was not renewed. He will be the fifth coach to tinker the national team since 2010.
He has the odious task of qualifying the Bafana Bafana for the 2015 Afcon, something they have not been able to achieve in the last two editions bar the 2013 edition which they hosted.
With Nigeria in his path, Shakes will want to turn the form books against Nigeria who have lost only one competitive game against the Bafana Bafana.
How it will work
Caf has a new format for the 2015 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations that will be hosted by Morocco, where two qualifying rounds will see lower seeded teams go into a group stage format will the top seeds.
Twenty-one teams were giving a bye into the group stages while four started from the first round, joined up up by 26 countries in the second round, which culminated to a two-legged affair to send winners into the group stage.
All group winners, runners-up and the best of the seven third-place countries will book tickets to Morocco for the Africa Cup of Nations that will run from January 17 to February 8 in four Moroccan cities of Rabat,Tangier, Agadir and Marrakesh.
Module for qualification
Teams will rank according to points they finish with after the group matches (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss). If tied on same number of points at the end of the group stage, tie breakers will b applied to chose who qualifies according to these rules in this order:
- Total amount of points obtained in games between the teams concerned ( head to head)
- Goal difference in games between the two sides
- Goals scored in games between the two sides
- Away goals scored in games between the teams concerned
- Goal difference in all games
- Goals scored in all games
- Drawing of lots, if all of the above fail to produce the winner
Tale to the tape:
Supersport.com sampled the opinion of leading football writers of the countries in Group A and this was what they had to say:
Rwanda
“From a Rwandan perspective, Group A is a tough challenge. Each of the sides are strong. No one gave a chance to Rwanda against Libya and now the Amavubi have also eliminated a strong Congo Brazzaville side.
“The atmosphere is good and the players have confidence right now and all this can be attributed to the new coach, Stephen Constantine, who has been spectacular with the players.
“They will take one game at a time and hope to qualify.
“Nigeria are the reigning African champions and if they don’t make it to the finals to try and defend their title then that would be very disastrous.
“They are favorites to qualify out of the group,” said Komugisha Usher, supersport.com’s Rwandan football expert.
South Africa
“South Africa have a chance, as top two go through. But I wouldn’t give them a chance against Nigeria and success is not guaranteed.
“After all, South Africa couldn’t beat Sierra Leone in failing to qualify for both 2010 and 2012 Afcon.
“Sudan and Rwanda could be tricky away trips, on top of the inevitable defeat to the Super Eagles in the away leg.
“Shakes did well to qualify the team for the 2004 Afcon. He has never lost a competitive match as Bafana coach. He is a really nice guy.
“But the team that he had back then was much better. We beat Ivory Coast with Mokoena, Mabizela, Pienaar, McCarthy and Bartlett.
“Now our best player is Serero and he is still a youngster. We have other good young players, but our recent competitive record is dismal,” said Jonty Mark, football editor, the Citizen newspaper.
Sudan
“Sudan’s chances of qualifying from this group will depend mainly on picking up maximum points at home and looking for a point away.
“Coach Mohamed Abdullah Mazda recently signed a new two-year deal with the national team and his team will camp in Addis Ababa for the qualifiers 10 days before the opener versus South Africa in Khartoum in early September.
“Questions arise regarding the period of the camp being only 10 days and whether the Sudanese FA has secured enough friendly games to satisfy the preparation.
“The Sudanese national team mainly consists of players playing in the local first division and with the league currently running to schedule, most players should be in good shape and form for the qualifiers.
“Also Al Hilal now competing in the Caf Champions League could cause problems as they will need their players to complete the club’s continental campaign and they might not be able to camp with the rest of the squad in Addis.Ababa
“Nigeria are upfront favourites to qualify in first place. The other three teams are in with a shout for that second spot and I expect it to be really tight among South Africa, Rwanda and Sudan.
“Coach Mazda targeted Afcon 2015 qualifying for some while now since the disappointment against Ethiopia in qualifying for Afcon 2013.
“The high hopes of a nation lie on the shoulders of these players, we want to be in Morocco 2015,” stated Abdul Musa, Sudanese football expert.
Nigeria’s fixtures
September 5-6, 2014: Nigeria v Rwanda
September 10, 2014: South Africa v Nigeria
October 10-11, 2014: Sudan v Nigeria
October 15, 2014: Nigeria v Sudan
November 14-15, 2014: Rwanda v Nigeria
November 19, 2014: Nigeria v South Africa
SUPERSPORT
