Despite the fact that they are the major football powers in the African continent, the Algerian and Nigerian teams were not among the top candidates for the title of the current edition of the African Cup of Nations (CAN 2019), which is currently in Egypt.

The two teams now have huge nominations to win the title, and even the winner of the semi-finals at the Cairo International Stadium may be the most prominent candidate to qualify for the title, regardless of the competition in the final.

Both teams competed in the current tournament after suffering several problems and falling over the years, after a period of impressive performance.

The Algerian team managed to score the full title in the first round, winning the three games in the group, which included the teams of Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania.

In the second round (round of 16), the Algerian team did not find it difficult to beat their Guinean counterpart 3-0, and then the team made a very strong show against the Ivorian in the quarterfinals and won the penalty shootout.

On the other hand, the start of the Nigerian team in the tournament was not the strength of the Algerian rival, where the Eagles of Nigeria finished second in Group B, winning Burundi and Guinea with one result is 1-0, then the sudden defeat against Madagascar zero -2, while the team achieved two victories in Difficulty on Cameroon 3-2 in the Round of 16 and South Africa 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

The statistics of the two teams so far indicate a clear advantage for the Algerian team on the eagles of Nigeria, where the Algerian players scored ten goals and scored a goal with only one goal is the equalizer for the Ivorian team in the quarterfinals, while Nigeria scored seven goals, and shook the net five times.

However, Algerian national coach Jamal Belmadi, who reshaped the team after taking charge in late 2018, needs to overcome more than one problem before facing the Nigerian team.

The first of these problems is the stress experienced by the players in light of the strong display of the Greens against the elephants of Côte d'Ivoire, over the 120 minutes is the time of original time and extra, before the penalty shootout.

Blamadi also needs to overcome the possible absence of two of the most prominent players, Sufian Figouli and Youssef Attal.

The Algerian team also needs to overcome the eagles' advantage in the record of direct official confrontations between the two teams, especially as the Nigerian team won in seven of the last nine games against the Greens. But what reassures the Algerian team that the latest clashes were in his favor, winning the Nigerian counterpart 3-0 in 2017 in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

In contrast to Figouli and Atal, the Algerian team has many prominent stars who depend on them in the Balamadi, including Manchester City's English star, Riyad Mehrez, the dangerous striker Baghdadi Bongah, the stubborn striker Islam Soleimani, Yousuf Baleeli, goalkeeper Wahab Reiss Mbulhi. On the other hand, Nigeria's Eagles have many prominent stars, such as the dangerous striker Audion Igalo, talented player Ahmed Moussa, and broad experience John Obi Mikel, who is expected to return to the core after missing the previous two games due to injury.

8 clashes for the two teams

The Algerian and Nigerian teams have met eight times in the African Championships, with each winning three games in two matches.

The most prominent of these confrontations in the final of the tournament hosted by Algeria in 1990, during which the Algerian team won its title in the African Championships, having won a sweeping 5-1 victory over the Eagles Nigeria in the group stage the same version in 1990. The two teams met in the semi-eighth edition of 1988 , And this game saw one of the draw between the two teams, but the Nigerian team won 9-8 in the marathon penalty shootout.

Their last encounter at the 2010 African Nations Cup was in Angola, where Nigeria won 1-0 in the third place.