[Official] Africa Cup of Nations semifinal match confirmed, 'World Cup elimination' Nigeria's 'great reversal victory' challenge

*This content was translated by AI.

Nigeria, which failed to advance to the 2026 FIFA North American World Cup finals, has advanced to the semi-finals of the 2025 African Football Confederation (CAF) Africa Cup of Nations.

Nigeria defeated Algeria 2-0 with consecutive goals by Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray) and Accor Adams (Seville) in the quarterfinals of the tournament at Marrakesh Stadium in Morocco on the 11th (Korea time). Algeria qualified for the 2026 FIFA North American World Cup.

As a result, Nigeria advanced to the semifinals for the second consecutive tournament following the 2023 tournament, which was the runner-up. He is one step closer to winning his fourth career championship since the 2013 tournament. Nigeria won both the round of 16 and quarterfinals in regular time after passing the previous Group C in all three games. It is the only 'contest victory' team among the teams that advanced to the semifinals.

Following Nigeria, Egypt won 3-2 with Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)'s winning goal in the quarterfinals after a rough-and-ready match against Ivory Coast, and the semifinal match of the tournament was also confirmed. Senegal (19th in FIFA ranking) and Egypt (35th, 2 a.m. on the 15th), Nigeria (38th) and Morocco (11th, 5 a.m. on the 15th) will compete for the finals, respectively.

Nigeria is the only team that failed to advance to the North American World Cup finals among the semifinals. Nigeria went to the playoffs as second place in Group C after falling behind South Africa in the previous African qualifying round, but lost to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the playoff final after a penalty shootout, frustrating its dream of becoming a World Cup finals.

Immediately after confirming the semifinals of the tournament, soccer statistics media Opta predicted Morocco's chances of winning the championship at 38.14%, the highest among the four teams. Morocco is the highest FIFA ranked team in Africa, and has won the semifinals in the 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup and the recent FIFA Arab Cup.

Senegal, which ranks second in FIFA rankings, followed with 25.71%, and Nigeria and Egypt followed with 19.12% and 17.03%, respectively. Morocco also had a 61.49% chance of advancing to the finals, far ahead of Nigeria (38.51%), while Senegal (56.32%) also had an advantage over Egypt (43.68%).

Meanwhile, South Africa, which belongs to the same group as South Korea and North American World Cup, was eliminated early after losing to Cameroon in the round of 16. Tunisia, which belongs to the same group as Japan, also lost to Mali after a penalty shootout and packed early. The African Cup of Nations is the highest national competition hosted by CAF, including the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and the UEFA European Championship (Euro).

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*This content was translated by AI.