The Super Eagles of Nigeria will go head-to-head against Cote d’Ivoire at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in their second group-stage match of the Africa Cup of Nations 2023 (AFCON) on Thursday.
Cote d’Ivoire, the hosts for this edition of the continental football showpiece, got their campaign underway with a 2-0 win over Guinea-Bissau. Seko Fofana opened the scoring in the fourth minute of the match while Jean-Philippe Krasso doubled the lead in the 58th minute.
Nigeria had a rather shaky start to their campaign as they were held to a 1-1 draw by a resilient Equatorial Guinea. Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, assisted by Ademola Lookman, equalised within two minutes of Equatorial Guinea taking the lead.
The three-time winners were quite wasteful in front of the goal, scoring just once from their seven shots on target.
The two teams have a long-standing rivalry and have traded tackles 27 times across all competitions since 1967. The hosts have a narrow 9-8 lead in the head-to-head record while 10 games have ended in draws.
Both teams have two wins apiece in the last four meetings in this fixture, with the hosts recording a 1-0 win in the friendly, when they last met in 2015.
They last met in the AFCON in the 2013 quarter-finals, with Nigeria recording a 2-1 win. They would go on to lift their third and last title a week later.
Host nations have only lost one of their last 38 group-stage games at the Africa Cup of Nations (W23 D14), which bodes well for the 1992 and 2015 champions.
The Super Eagles have the upper hand in the six AFCON meetings against Cote d’Ivoire, with four wins (though two have come on penalties) and two games going the hosts’ way.
Interestingly, Nigeria has made it to the finals in four of the six editions of the competition in which they have crossed paths against the hosts.