TAIWO ADELU
Nigeria’s Super Eagles will walk onto the pitch of the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium on Saturday on superior ground against the Fennecs of Algeria.
There have been 17 clashes between both teams (all at competitive level), with Nigeria winning eight times, drawing three and losing six. And Nigeria captain Mikel John Obi was less than three years old the last time Algeria defeated Nigeria, in the final of the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations in Algiers.
Super Eagles’ current goalkeepers’ trainer Aloysius Agu was the Eagles’ goalkeeper and captain that day, 16th March 1990. It was a tough game at the July 5 Stadium in Algiers, but the Fennecs won their first (and still only) Africa title when Cherif Oudjani’s long range effort beat Agu for the only goal of the match.
At that same competition, Algeria had beaten the Eagles 5-1 in the opening match. But the Eagles would remember that and pay back the Fennecs when lashing their hosts 5-2 in Oran in a 2006 World Cup qualifier on 4th September 2005.
The first clash between both countries was on 10th January 1973, during the football event of the 2nd All-Africa Games that Nigeria hosted. The match ended 2-2. Seven years later, the Green Eagles would thrash the Algerians 3-0 to lift their first Africa Cup title.
In their last four confrontations, the Eagles have enjoyed a winning streak against the Algerians, which is more than the three consecutive wins Algeria had over Nigeria between October 1981 and March 1982. In the qualifying race for Espana ’82, Algeria beat Nigeria 2-0 in Lagos and 2-1 in Constantine, and the Fennecs then came from behind to edge the Eagles 2-1 at the 1982 Africa Cup of Nations in Libya.
NIGERIA-ALGERIA IN HISTORY
10 Jan 1973: Nigeria 2 Algeria 2 (AAG, Lagos)
22 Mar 1980: Nigeria 3 Algeria 0 (ACN, Lagos)
10 Oct 1981: Nigeria 0 Algeria 2 (WCq, Lagos)
30 Oct 1981: Algeria 2 Nigeria 1 (WCq, Constantine)
10 Mar 1982: Algeria 2 Nigeria 1 (ACN, Benghazi)
11 Mar 1984: Algeria 0 Nigeria 0 (ACN, Bouake)
15 Jan 1988: Algeria 1 Nigeria 0 (Olq, Annaba)
30 Jan 1988: Nigeria 2 Algeria 0 (Olq, Enugu)
23 Mar 1988: Algeria 1 Nigeria 1 (ACN, Rabat: Nigeria win 9-8 penalties)
2 Mar 1990: Algeria 5 Nigeria 1 (ACN, Algiers)
16 Mar 1990: Algeria 1 Nigeria 0 (ACN, Algiers)
13 July 1993: Nigeria 4 Algeria 1 (WCq, Lagos)
8 Oct 1993: Algeria 1 Nigeria 1 (WCq, Algiers)
21 Jan 2002: Algeria 0 Nigeria 1 (ACN, Bamako)
3 July 2004: Nigeria 1 Algeria 0 (WCq, Abuja)
4 Sept 2005: Algeria 2 Nigeria 5 (WCq, Oran)
30 Jan 2010: Algeria 0 Nigeria 1 (ACN, Benguela)
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