When it comes to teams that are favorite to win the AFCON tournament aside from the host country that was knocked out too quick, Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal were all tips to win the trophy and the most interesting part of it is when the Super Eagle of Nigeria was drawn against Algeria in the semi final of the competition.
Algeria was rated as the best team so far in the tournament with their style of play after an impressive display in the group stage and with the way the team cruise pass their opponents. Nigeria on the other hand were not really bad after winning two of their group stage matches and with a lost to low rated team Madagascar.
It was a moan day for the Nigeria coach and the team as a whole because the lost the semi Final 2-1 to Algeria in the final minute of the match and it was an heartbreaking match for many football lovers both at home and at abroad.
Many people hold the assertion that the two teams should have met each other in the final stage of the competition because any team that triumph at the end of the match will definitely win the cup at the end. In fact, the game was one of the best football match i have watched so far in 2019 because it was full of energetic display with good moves which mostly comes from the Algeria team.
Nigeria coach Rohr was really wrong in his tactics and he definitely paid for it because the Alfredo team dominated the game with long range passes. The manager uses 4-3-3 formation with two blocking 4 which didn't allow the team to play their attention football they were really known for.
Troost-Ekong scored an own goal in the 40 minutes of the game after Mahrez delivered a good square play into the Nigeria box which was deflected into the net by the defender and that made the game 1-0 in favour of the Algeria team after the half break. Nigeria reply to the goal in the 72 minutes after a controversial penalty appeal through the Video Assistant Referee(VAR) which was scored by Ighalo.
Nigeria continue to create more chances to seal the winning and the same thing goes to the Algeria team and when the match enters the extra additional minutes, Algeria had a free kick and Mahrez put it into the back of the net to make it 2-1 in favour of the Algeria team.
Like i said earlier, i will just tell the coach to always get his tactics right against his opponent. You need to study your opponent very well before deciding on the type of formation to be use in any game. It would have be better to use one blocking 4 like Ndidi and Etebo as 8 rather than Iwobi there, then a player like Mikel Obi would have done better in the number 10 position and the match would have ended in Favour of the Nigeria team.
This post is posted on my Scorum account
