Kenya’s Rising Stars are right in the firing line as seven-time champions and two-time runners-up Nigeria are determined to celebrate their 100^th match of the U20 Africa Cup of Nations with a win in downtown Cairo on Wednesday evening.

The clash, one of the closing games of group B of the ongoing CAF U20 Championship and which is scheduled to kick off 4 pm Nigeria time, is on different gradients for both teams, with the Kenyans in need of a handsome win to stand a chance of progressing to the quarter finals while the Flying Eagles only require a draw.

Nigeria’s scorer, Auwal Ibrahim, flies past two Tunisian opponents.

Second-placed Nigeria, on four points, will reach the last eight of the competition if they secure a draw (which will take their haul to five, and spring them to the next round irrespective of the result in the clash between first-placed Morocco and third-placed Tunisia).

A win for Morocco will take them to seven points, and keep three-point Tunisia in third place, while a draw earns Morocco a total of five points from their three matches and keeps Tunisia at four. A win for Tunisia will take the Junior Carthage Eagles to six points and drag the Lion Cubs to third place.

With 19 teams involved in the tournament, and teams drawn into three pools, the top two teams in each group, alongside the best two third-placed teams, will progress to the quarter-finals.

Despite their promise, the Rising Stars have failed to light up Cairo, losing a five-goal thriller to Morocco on the opening day and failing to deliver in the 1-3 loss to Tunisia on Sunday.

Getting a win against Nigeria will be huge for the Kenyans, who have struggled badly over the decades against Nigeria’s opposition on the field of play.

Their first three encounters, between 1968 and 1991, were friendly matches, with Nigeria winning twice in Nairobi and the other match (also in Nairobi) ending in a 1-1 draw.

In a 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Nairobi in April 1985, goals by Fatai Amao and Rashidi Yekini, and a Hussein Khari own goal, gave Nigeria a 3-0 win. In the return leg in Lagos, Yekini and Dr Joe Masiga each scored a magnificent goal, but Dahiru Sadi and Yisa Sofoluwe added to Nigeria’s tally for a 3-1 win.

Nigeria won 3-0 and 2-1 in 1988 and 1992 AFCON group phase matches, respectively, and in a 1998 World Cup qualifying fixture, both teams drew 1-1 in Nairobi before Nigeria triumphed 3-0 in Lagos to qualify for France 1998.

Nigeria won friendly matches in 2002, 2007 and 2011, and also beat the Kenyans home (3-0) and away (3-2) to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals.

In 2013, a 1-1 draw in Calabar and a 1-0 win in Nairobi in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers confirmed Nigeria’s undoubted superiority.

 In qualifying matches for the 1996 Olympic Games, both teams played a 1-1 draw in Nigeria, but the Dream Team defeated their hosts 3-0 in Mombasa.

The Flying Eagles will be determined to underscore this superiority on Wednesday, to pop champagne in what will be their 100^th match of the tournament and also stand a chance of finishing as group B winners.

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Nigeria’s Flying Eagles and the Morocco Lion Cubs ended their Group B match goalless on Match Day 2 of the U20 Africa Cup of Nations at the 30 June Stadium in Cairo on Sunday.

The result put both teams at four points, but Morocco stayed on top, having scored more goals in their opening match with Kenya, which ended 3-2 in their favour. Nigeria, on the other hand, beat Tunisia 1-0.

Midfielder Divine Oliseh’s first-half effort was the only notable opportunity created by the seven-time champions on the night, and they must now fight for a win against Kenya’s Rising Stars on Wednesday evening to be certain of a place in the quarter-finals.

Second-placed Nigeria will square up to the bottom-placed Kenyans while the two North African teams try each other for size as group B’s attrition winds up on Wednesday.

Tunisia, who lost 0-1 to Nigeria on the opening day of group B, trounced Kenya 3-1 in the first match of the day at the 30 June Air Defence Stadium, to stay in the third position with three points. Kenya’s Rising Stars remain pointless.    

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Morocco began this year’s tournament with an impressive 3-2 comeback win against Kenya. That result extended their unbeaten run in open play at the U20 AFCON finals to 10 matches (W5 D5), with their last defeat coming in the group stage of the 2003 tournament, a 4-0 loss to Egypt.

  They are also unbeaten in their last seven group-stage matches at the finals (W5 D2).

 The five-goal thriller against Kenya was the first time Morocco had been involved in such a high-scoring game at the finals since their 4-1 loss to Egypt in 1997.

Historically, Morocco has never started a group-stage tournament with two consecutive wins.

On both previous occasions when they won their opening match – against Lesotho in 2005 and Gambia in 2021 – they failed to win the second, drawing 2-2 with Egypt and 0-0 with Ghana, respectively.

Since 1993, when group stages became standard, Morocco’s record in their second group game is: Played 5, Won 1, Drawn 2, Lost 2. Their only win in that span came in 1997 on home soil, a 2-0 victory over Sudan.

They have drawn their second match in each of their last two appearances (2005 and 2021) and lost in 1993 (4-1 to Egypt) and 2003 (1-0 to Côte d’Ivoire).

In their win over Kenya, Morocco recorded nine shots on target – the most of any team in the first round of matches.

Ismaël Baouf completed 69 passes, the most by any player in that game. Saad El Haddad had a perfect tackle success rate, winning all six of his challenges.

Yassir Zabiri scored twice from three shots on target, while Reda Laalaoui netted the game-winner in the 87th minute with his only shot on target.

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