Super Eagles winger Moses Simon haz admitted that it would not be a stroll-in-the-park at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny on Friday when the team take on Angola for a place in the last four of the AFCON 2023.
“It is going to be a difficult game, like the ones against Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon, and even Equatorial Guinea. We must be at our best and focus on the prize.”
Clashes between Nigeria and Angola at international level have been few and far between, but Nigeria has a couple of scores to settle with the southern African nation, Nigeriasoccernet.com can confirm.
Angola edged Nigeria to reach the last round of the qualification series for the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals in Italy, but the return leg in Nigeria that the Eagles won 1-0 was under a cloud of tragedy as playmaker Samuel Okwaraji collapsed and died 13 minutes from the end on 12th August 1989. Several other football fans lost their lives in a stampede that ensued after the game. The first leg in Luanda ended 2-2.
Angola also famously stopped Nigeria from reaching the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, when the Eagles followed a 0-1 loss in Luanda to draw 1-1 with the Negras in a sunny Sani Abacha Stadium in June 2005.
By Olaleye Oluwadamilola