Victor Osimhen and Akor Adams were on target as Nigeria booked their place in the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations with a deserved 2-0 victory over Algeria.
The Super Eagles will take on hosts Morocco for a place in the final on Wednesday, having produced an impressive display in Saturday’s last-eight encounter in Marrakech.
Nigeria dominated the first half but somehow failed to take a lead into the interval. Adams had their best chance of the opening period, but he side-footed high and wide with only Luca Zidane in the Algeria goal to beat.
Manchester City’s Rayan Ait-Nouri also made an excellent, last-ditch tackle to deny Osimhen, while Ademola Lookman worked Zidane.
Calvin Bassey also saw a prodded attempt hooked away by Ramy Bensebaini, with a long VAR check required to ascertain that the ball had not crossed the line, with goal-line technology not in use at this edition of AFCON.
But Algeria’s resistance was finally broken only 84 seconds into the second half as Bruno Onyemaechi hung up a cross to the far post, where Osimhen converted with a downward header.
Osimhen was denied a second goal shortly afterwards, but he turned creator for Adams in the 57th minute, the Sevilla man calmly collecting his strike partner’s lay-off, rounding Zidane, then tapping into the unguarded net.
Eric Chelle’s team had chances to add further gloss to their lead, but they ultimately had to settle for a 2-0 success as Adams somehow headed against the post when presented with an open goal.
Data Debrief: Nigeria dominate en route to semis
Nigeria have impressed so far at AFCON, taking maximum points from their group before thumping Mozambique 4-0 in the last 16, but this was their best display yet.
The Super Eagles fired off 13 shots to Algeria’s three and also won the expected goals (xG) battle by a convincing 2.9 xG to 0.13 xG, not giving up a single shot on target.
Algeria did not even register their first shot until the 80th minute, with this the first time on record (since 2010) that they have not managed a single attempt in the first half of an AFCON match.
Nigeria, meanwhile, are only the second team to ever score two or more goals in their first five matches at a single edition of AFCON, after Egypt did so in 1974 and 2010.