Nigeria’s Super Eagles will walk onto the pitch of the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium on Saturday on superior ground against the Desert Foxes 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 Obi, was less than three years old the last time Algeria defeated Nigeria, in the final of the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations
(AFCON) in Algiers.
Super Eagles’ current goalkeepers’ trainer, Aloysius Agu, was the Eagles’ goalkeeper and captain that day, March 16, 1990. It was a tough game at the July 5 Stadium in Algiers, but the Desert Foxes won their first (and still only) Africa title when Sherif 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 Algerians 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.
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