RABAT \u2014 Nigeria is bidding for a fourth CAF Africa Cup of Nations title as they take on hosts Morocco, who is seeking their first continental title since 1976, in the semi-finals of the 2025 AFCON. The highly anticipated clash will be staged at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on January 14, with kick-off set for 20:00 GMT.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Both teams are undefeated with Nigeria winning all five of their games, while Morocco have recorded four wins and a draw.<\/p>\n
They meet at the Africa Cup of Nations for the sixth time, with all five previous AFCON meetings producing a winner.<\/p>\n
This is their first meeting in 22 years at AFCON and the second time they face each other in an AFCON Semi-final.<\/p>\n
Four of their previous five AFCON meetings came in the group stages in 1976 (two games), 2000 and 2004.<\/p>\n
They first met at AFCON in 1976 in the group stages, with Morocco winning both matches 3-1 and 2-1 on their way to their first and only title.<\/p>\n
This is their second meeting in the Semi-finals. Nigeria won the previous clash in 1980, triumphing 1-0 with Felix Owolabi scoring the winner in the 9th minute en route to their first title.<\/p>\n
They met again in 2000 when Nigeria eliminated Morocco in their final Group D game with a 2-0 victory, with Finidi George and Julius Aghahowa scoring for the Super Eagles.<\/p>\n
Their last AFCON meeting came in the group stages in 2004, when Morocco won 1-0 in their opening Group D match, Youssef Hadji scoring the only goal in the 77th minute.<\/p>\n
Nigeria has faced the host or co-host nation on ten previous occasions, with their record against hosts reading P10 W3 D3 L4.<\/p>\n
Nigeria meets AFCON hosts for a second tournament in a row, having faced C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire in the group stages and the final in 2023, winning 1-0 in the group stage and losing 2-1 in the final.<\/p>\n
Nigeria also defeated tournament hosts in 2002, winning the third-place match against Mali 1-0, and recorded a group-stage win over Senegal in 1992 by a 2-1 scoreline.<\/p>\n
Nigeria has lost four times against hosts: twice against Algeria in 1990 (group stage and final), as well as defeats to Ghana in the 2008 Quarter-finals and C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire in the 2023 Final.<\/p>\n
Nigeria has drawn three times against hosts: in 1978 against Ghana, in 2002 against Mali in the group stages, and in 2004 against Tunisia in the Semi-finals (1-1), before losing on penalties.<\/p>\n
In the knockout rounds at AFCON, Nigeria have faced hosts five times, winning only once against Mali in the 2002 third-place match.<\/p>\n
They have lost three times in open play against Algeria in the 1990 Final, Ghana in the 2008 Quarter-finals and C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire in the 2023 Final, and lost on penalties to Tunisia in 2004.<\/p>\n
This is Nigeria\u2019s third direct knockout match against a host team, having previously lost to Tunisia on penalties in the 2004 Semi-finals and to Ghana in the 2008 Quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
Overall, this is their 12th meeting, with Morocco holding the upper hand with six wins to Nigeria\u2019s three, with two draws.<\/p>\n
Both draws ended 0-0 and came in qualification for the 1984 AFCON in the second round over two legs, with Nigeria progressing after winning a penalty shoot-out following a goalless aggregate.<\/p>\n
Seven of the 11 goals scored in their previous five AFCON meetings have come in the second half.<\/p>\n
Morocco booked their place in the AFCON 2025 semi-finals with a narrow 1-0 win over Cameroon, reaching the last four for the first time since 2004. It was only their second quarter-final victory in five attempts and lifted their overall AFCON goal tally to 96.<\/p>\n
The Atlas Lions are featuring in the AFCON semi-finals for the fifth time\u2014and the second as hosts\u2014but have managed just one win from their previous three appearances at this stage.<\/p>\n
All three of Morocco\u2019s semi-final exits came by 1-0 margins, including defeat to hosts Nigeria in 1980, with each conqueror going on to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n
Victory here would send Morocco into their second AFCON final and their first in over two decades, making them the second consecutive hosts\u2014and the 15th overall\u2014to reach the final.<\/p>\n
Under Walid Regragui, Morocco is contesting their second major semi-final, with a win set to book a third senior CAF final in under a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RABAT \u2014 Nigeria is bidding for a fourth CAF Africa Cup of Nations title as they take on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[122],"class_list":{"0":"post-20810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-nigeria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}