Simon Utsu|12 July 2019
The Nigerian football team will play their Algerian counterparts in a couple of days in this year's AFCON semifinals. The only similarity between both nations is the last two syllables(GE/RIA) in the names of both countries, almost every other thing is different. While Algeria is located in the Northern part of Africa, Nigeria is geographically situated in the Western part of the continent. Also, Algeria is predominantly Muslim while Nigeria has a balanced population of Christians and Muslims. The culture and politics of both nations are also very different. Additionally, Algeria is much more developed than Nigeria and is on my tourism destination 'bucket list'.
That said, Algeria has had a very poor run of form against Nigeria on the football field in recent years. Both countries have met 10 times in competitive football since 1990 and Nigeria won 7, lost two and drew once. Its noteworthy that this year's AFCON has been one where history kept repeating itself. Ghana lost on penalties as they're always known to do during their 2nd round game couple of days back. Recent history also repeated itself yesterday when Nigeria slaughtered South Africa. Earlier today, Ivory Coast got knocked out of the competition via penalties by Algeria in what was a repeat of the last AFCON meeting between both sides.
So who is saying the super eagles of Nigeria wont knock the desert warriors of Algeria in the next couple of days by a slim margin in line with recent result history? Who?
Simon Utsu writes from Nigeria