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13 AMAZING FACTS AHEAD OF NIGERIA-EGYPT FRIENDLY MATCH

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA

Both Nigeria and Egypt meet in Asaba on Tuesday after both played their
respective last matches for the qualifying series of the 2019 Africa Cup of
Nations at the weekend. Both secured qualification before the last match days
with their encounters merely serving as build-up to the final competition in
June.

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As usual, www.sportsvillagesquare.com takes
an insightful look at the match and comes out with the following points of
interest.

 

  • The match will be the third match that the Super Eagles will play at the arena that serves as eternal memorial to the former skipper and coach, Stephen Keshi.
  • Egypt is the first country that inflicted a home defeat on Nigeria when the then United Arab Republic beat Nigeria’s ‘Red Devils’ 6-2 in Lagos in a Rome 1960 Olympic qualifying tournament.
  • Egypt was the team that made Nigeria to switch from red shirts to the now familiar green. It was at the occasion of the return leg match of the Rome Olympic Games’ qualifying tournament played in Cairo on January 1, 1960. The Nigerian team had to change to green since the home country played in red. It was a step towards becoming ‘Green Eagles’ in the months that followed. Nigeria lost the match 0-3.
  • Nigeria’s first own goal was scored in the match with Egypt (UAR) on December 13,1959 when John Onyeador turned the ball into his team’s net after two minutes of kick-off in an eventual 2-6 home loss.
  • It was against Egypt that Asuquo Ekpe scored Nigeria’s first Africa Cup of Nations’ goal in a 6-3 loss on November 24, 1963 in Kumasi, Ghana.
  • It was in Egypt that Obinna Nsofor scored Nigeria’s 100th Africa Cup of Nations goal when he found the net in a 1-1 draw with Tunisia on February 4, 2006 in Port Said.
Obafemi Martins, Taye Taiwo and Joseph Enakhire join Obinna Nsofor in celebrating what turned to be Nigeria’s 100th goal in the Africa Cup of Nations when Super Eagles faced Tunisia at Port Said in Egypt during the 2006 tournament.
  • Until Ghana beat Egypt in the qualifying series for Brazil 2014, Nigeria’s 4-0 defeat of Egypt on October 8, 1977, was the country’s heaviest defeat in a World Cup qualifying match.
  • Until Egypt beat Nigeria 3-1 in Benguela, Angola, Nigeria successively had the upper hand in all Africa Cup of Nations’ matches involving both countries from 1976 to 2010.
  • Former Nigerian skipper, Stephen Keshi scored the first of his 10 goals for Nigeria when he converted a penalty kick against Egypt in a friendly match on February 20, 1983 in Kaduna to bring scoreline to 1-1.
  • The doyen of football coaches in Nigeria, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde made his national debut as Nigeria’s coach in a February 18, 1983 friendly match with Egypt in Lagos. The match ended goalless.
Chief Onigbinde made his international coaching debut when he led Nigeria to face Egypt on February 18, 1983 in Lagos.

  • Egypt with seven victories won most titles of the Africa Cup of Nations. Nigeria with seven third placed positions has the record of most bronze medals.
  • Nigeria and Egypt are the only countries to have personalities who won the African titles as players and coaches. Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary won the African Cup as player in 1959 and then as a coach in 1998. Nigeria’s Stephen Keshi won the cup as a player in 1994 and then as a coach in 2013.
  • In head-to-head confrontations, Egypt has a slight edge over Nigeria having won eight of 20 encounters while Nigeria won five.

P          W         D          L          F          A

Egypt        20        8          7          5          36        28

Nigeria    20        5          7          8        28        36

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  • 13 Dec. 1959  (Oq, Lagos) Nigeria 2-6 Egypt
  • 1 Jan. 1960 (Oq, Cairo)   Egypt 3-0 Nigeria
  • 29 Nov. 1960 (F. Lagos) Nigeria 1-2 Egypt
  • 24 Nov. 1963 (Afcon, Kumasi) Egypt 6-3 Nigeria
  • 14 Jan 1973 (AAG, Lagos) Nigeria 4-2 Egypt
  • 14 Mar 1976 (Afcon Dire Dawa) Egypt 2-3 Nigeria
  • 8 Oct. 1977 (WCq, Lagos) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
  • 21 Oct. 1977 (WCq, Cairo) Egypt 3-1 Nigeria
  • 15 Mar. 1980 (Afcon, Lagos) Nigeria 1-0 Egypt
  • 18 Feb. 1983 (F. Lagos) Nigeria 0-0 Egypt
  • 20 Feb. 1983 (F. Kaduna) Nigeria 1-1 Egypt
  • 14 Mar. 1984 (Afcon, Bouake) Egypt 2-2 Nigeria (7-8 pso)
  • 20 Mar. 1988 (Afcon, Rabat) Egypt 0-0 Nigeria
  • 5. Mar. 1990 (Afcon, Algiers) Egypt 0-1 Nigeria
  • 30 Mar. 1994 (Afcon, Tunis) Egypt 0-0 Nigeria
  • 25 Nov 2002 (F. Lagos) Nigeria 1-1 Egypt
  • 12 Jan 2010 (Afcon. Benguela) Egypt 3-1 Nigeria
  • 12 Apr 2012 (F-Dubai) Egypt 3-2 Nigeria
  • 25 Mar 2016 (Afconq, Kaduna) Nigeria 1-1 Egypt
  • 29 Mar, 2016 (Afconq, Alexandria) Egypt 1-0 Nigeria

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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