2019 AFCON Draw: The Three Countries Nigeria Should Avoid In The Group Stage

Published: April 10, 2019

The Super Eagles of Nigeria were seeded into pot 2 alongside Morocco, DR Congo, Algeria, Mali and Guinea ahead of the draw for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

This means the Eagles won't face any of these countries in the group stage of the competition in Egypt.

Gernot Rohr's men will draw one country from first, third and fourth pot respectively.

Allnigeriasoccer.com studied the teams in each pot and comes up with a comprehensive list of top three countries the Super Eagles should avoid in the group stage if they must progress to the next round of the tournament.

First Pot : Senegal

The first pot contains Egypt, Ghana, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Senegal. It consists of major powerhouses in African football but the Teranga Lions of Senegal are the team to avoid.

Senegal are unbeaten in their last six games, and they are first in the FIFA ranking. The team are definitely going to be a huge test for the three-time African Champions, so it is better to avoid them at such early stage.

Cameroon are better option, considering the fellow West African country were defeated 4-0 in Uyo during one of 2018 World Cup qualifying matches.

Third Pot : Guinea-Bissau

The third pot contains Uganda, South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, Angola and Burundi.

Guinea-Bissau qualified for the AFCON tournament as group winners with 9 points and lost once throughout the qualifying series.

The Super Eagles should pray to avoid the team from western part of the continent. Meanwhile, It will be interesting if Rohr's men meet South Africa in Egypt.

Fourth Pot : Tanzania

This is the last seed and it consists of Mauritania, Namibia, Benin, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar.

There is no team capable of causing harm to Super Eagles on paper, however, the West African side shouldn't underrate the power of underdogs.

Tanzania can't boast of top stars but they have Emmanuel Amunike - who knows Nigeria's style of play - as manager, which is an added advantage.

The Nigeria-born Tanzania manager has worked with most of the current Super Eagles players; therefore he knows how to prevent them from wrecking havoc against his team.

Ibukun Italoye