Bad omen for AFCON finalists 'emerges'
With the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations approaching its climax, all eyes will be on the final this weekend, but one team could fall victim to a what seems to have emerged as a bad omen.
On Sunday, host nation Ivory Coast will take on Nigeria for the second time in this edition of the competition, with the first meeting coming in a group-stage encounter that was won 1-0 by the Super Eagles.
As pointed out by Yallakora, the final will mark the eighth instance in which teams meet again in the ultimate showdown after facing off in the group stage.
The odds, however, seem to not be in favour of the hosts this time around.
Of these eight repeat confrontations, four of those matches witnessed a team securing victory both in the group stage and in the final, with Algeria and Egypt achieving this feat on two occasions each.
Three of those group matches ended in draws, with Nigeria being involved in two of them.
The first came in the 1988 edition of the tournament when they drew with Cameroon before losing to them in the final.
Then, in 2013, the Super Eagles went on to win the title after drawing with Burkina Faso in the group stage before facing them in the tournament decider.
As such, only once out of the abovementioned eight instances did the team who lost to a country in their group-stage match go on to beat that same side in the final.
This happened all the way back in 1968, when Congo-Kinshasa (now known as DR Congo) lost 2-1 to Ghana before getting their revenge by defeating the Black Stars when it mattered most, in the final.
How it played out over the years:
2019: (Group stage) Algeria 1-0 Senegal | (final) Algeria 1-0.
2013: (Group stage) Nigeria 1-1 Burkina Faso | (Final) Nigeria 1-0.
2008: (Group stage)
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