No Alarms and No Surprises: Egypt & Nigeria Survive Group C – African Cup of Nations 2010

Here is how the table looked after the completion of Group C:

As you can see the big boys made light work of this group, on paper at least, as holders Egypt and Nigeria careered past Benin and Mozambique on their way to the knockout stages. But, to borrow a Wu-Tang lyric, can it be that it was all so simple? Were the two traditional powers of Africa really that much better than their less illustrious counterparts?

The answer is yes and no.

Easy for Egypt

For the holders Egypt Group C was simple, like turning on a tap or zipping up flies. I personally had my doubts about Egypt at this year’s African Cup of Nations (AFCON), thinking the disappointment of a bitter World Cup playoff defeat to Algeria and injuries to key players like Mohamed Aboutreika would prove too much psychologically for Hassan Shehata’s squad to overcome.

How wrong I was. Despite a shaky opening period in their first game when Nigeria went 1-0 up and looked much the better side, Egypt brushed themselves down and turned in a highly professional performance to win 3-1 – a comfortable victory in the end. That game I think spoke volumes about why Egypt are so good when it comes to Africa’s showpiece continental competition; the twin attributes of team spirit and tactical organisation.

As soon as Egypt went 2-1 up coach Shehata took off a midfielder (Hossam Ghaly) for a defender (Ahmed Al-Muhammadi) and reverted to a 5-3-2 formation, matching up 3 centre backs with Nigeria’s 3-pronged forward line. This completely neutralised Nigeria’s narrow play and shut the game down, before Mohamed Gedo’s late strike killed Nigeria off. 2-0 wins against Benin and Mozambique were both fairly routine.

Egypt’s tactical maturity holds them in good stead in these big games, and is a reason they possess the last 2 consecutive AFCON trophies. The stability Egypt have brought about by Shehata’s long, 6 year tenure in charge, helps massively. It has allowed the former Zamalek player to mould a team to his liking, and Egypt benefit greatly from the continuity others in Africa do not have.

Not quite super Eagles

Nigeria on the other hand made life more difficult for themselves. For a team with so many experienced players it was stunning to see how they collectively fell asleep after going 1-0 up against Egypt. From a promising position – 1-0 up and firmly on top – Nigeria simply threw it away. The defensive collapse for the first goal was bad enough, but worse was accumulation of silly mistakes all over the pitch as embodied by captain Joseph Yobo being completely unable to hold a defensive line on more than one occasion. Nigeria’s lack of drive and aggression allowed Egypt a way back.

The Super Eagles’ second game against Benin wasn’t much better. But with Peter Odemwingie in the team Nigeria’s attack looked more potent, though it needed a dubious penalty decision to help them towards a 1-0 win that on the balance of play they probably didn’t deserve.

In the final group game against Mozambique Nigeria were much improved. Forget John Obi Mikel or Obafemi Martins; Odemwingie is the real star of Shuaibu Amodu’s team and he showed so in Lubango with 2 goals, one of them a wonderful left foot screamer just before half time. Nigeria played with a lot more verve and dynamism against Mozambique, particularly in the second half, and having secured qualification Amodu will draw optimism from the gradual improvements he has seen over 3 games. “I’m happy for the team. We had a lot of pressure on us, but since the start of the competition we have made daily progress,” said Odemwingie, confirming the feeling in the Nigeria camp that the team is making good headway.

Benin & Mozambique – not good enough

There were chances for both Benin and Mozambique to make more of their 2010 AFCON campaign. Benin were 2-0 up inside 20 minutes when the two met before Mozambique pegged them back to 2-2. With Nigeria defeated there was a real opportunity for one of these two to get a stranglehold on Group C heading into matchday 2. Benin in particular; had they gone into the Nigeria game 3 points ahead of their West African rivals a win would have sent them through.

In the end though the feeling both had missed a huge opportunity in that 2-2 draw seemed to haunt both Benin and Mozambique, and neither side showed enough in their final two matches to deserve to progress.

Egypt now go on to face Cameroon in a repeat of the 2008 Cup of Nations final, while Nigeria have a tricky tie to overcome against surprise package Zambia.

African Cup of Nations 2010, African Football, Benin, Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria