AFCON 2025: Nigeria seeks to extend extraordinary bronze medal record

Nigeria will take an extraordinary record of consistency into Saturday’s bronze medal match at the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals as they compete in the third and fourth place play-off match for the eighth time.

Nigeria has won all seven previous third place playoff games they have competed in since their first in the 1978 finals in Ghana.

Technically, they were also third at the 1976 finals in Ethiopia, where the last four played a round-robin group competition to decide the winner, which was Morocco with Guinea second and Nigeria third and Egypt fourth. There was no actual final nor third place play-off game, with the final positions determined by points after each team had played each other.

Therefore, their total of eight bronze medals is untouched in Cup of Nations history.

On Saturday, at Stade Mohamed V in Casablanca, they will be taking on Egypt for third place again after both sides lost narrowly in Wednesday’s semi-finals.

Egypt also has a strong record in the third-place playoff match, although they last competed for bronze back in 1984 when Algeria beat them in Abidjan.

It will be the fifth time that Egypt participates in the bronze medal match, winning three of them.

The Cup of Nations first introduced the game at the 1962 edition, which was hosted in Ethiopia and won by the home nation with Tunisia finishing third.

Nigeria has far and away the best record, with the Super Eagles finishing third for three tournaments in a row between 2002 and 2006 and then again in 2010.

Côte d’Ivoire has been third four times in the past, and Zambia three times.

Some of the past bronze medal matches were thrilling encounters, like when 1972 hosts Cameroon thrashed Zaire 5-2 in Yaoundé with all the goals coming in the first half, or the 1998 third place play-off in Ouagadougou when hosts Burkina Faso squandered a three-goal lead with four minutes to go and lost on post-match penalties.

In 2021, hosts Cameroon and Burkina Faso played out a dramatic six-goal epic before the Indomitable Lions won on penalties.

Only twice has a third place play-off match ended goalless, first in 2015 when hosts Equatorial Guinea were pipped by the Democratic Republic of Congo on post-match penalties, and then again at the last edition where South Africa edged the Leopards.

 

Third place play-off results:

1962: Tunisia (1) 3 (Mohamed Salah Jedidi, Chadli Aouini, Rachid Meddeb) Uganda 0

1963: Egypt (2) 3 (Ibrahim Reda, Taha Ismail, Hassan Shazli) Ethiopia 0

1965: Côte d’Ivoire (1) 1 (Yobouet Konan 35’) Senegal 0

1968: Ethiopia 0 Côte d’Ivoire (1) 1 (Laurent Pokou 28’)

1970: Côte d’Ivoire (0) 1 (Laurent Pokou 72’) Egypt (2) 3 (Hassan Shazli 3’, 14’, 50’)

1972: Cameroon (5) 5 (Jean-Paul Akono 4’ pen, Gaston Paul Ndongo 31’, Norbert Owona 32’, Philippe Mouthe 34’, Jean Baptiste Ndoga 42’) Zaire (2) 2 (Emmanuel Kakoko 13’, Adelard Mayanga 17’)

1974: Egypt (3) 4 (Mostafa Abdou 5’, Hassan Shehata 18’, 80’, Ali Abougreisha 62’) Congo 0

1976: No third place match

1978: Nigeria (1) 1 (Baba Otu 42’) Tunisia (1) 1 (Ali Akid 19’). Match abandoned at 42’, Tunisia walked off in protest after the Nigerian goal.

1980: Egypt 0 Morocco (1) 2 (Khalid Labied 9’, 78’)

1982: Algeria 0 Zambia (2) 2 (Peter Kaumba 2’, Godfrey Munshya 25’)

1984: Algeria (0) 3 (Rabah Madjer 67’, Lakhdar Belloumi 70’, Hocine Yahi 88’) Egypt (0) 1 (Magdi Abdelghani 74’ pen)

1986: Côte d’Ivoire (2) 3 (Oumar Ben Salah 8’, Lucien Kassy Kouadio 38’, 68’ pen) Morocco (1) 2 (Abdelfettah Rhiati 44’, Mohamed Sahil 85’)

1988: Morocco (0) 1 (Hassen Nader 66’) Algeria (0) 1 (Lakhdar Belloumi 87’). Algeria won 4-3 on penalties.

1990: Senegal 0 Zambia (0) 1 (Webby Chikabala 73’)

1992: Cameroon (1) 1 (Emmanuel Kessack Maboang 85’) Nigeria (0) 2 (Friday Ekpo 75’, Rachidi Yekini 88’)

1994: Côte d’Ivoire (1) 3 (Adama Clofie Kone 2’, Ahmed Ouattara 68’, Donald-Olivier Sie 70’) Mali (0) 1 (Amadou Pathe Diallo 46’)

1996: Ghana 0 Zambia (0) 1 (Joel Bwalya 52’)

1998: Burkina Faso (1) 4 (Alassane Ouedraogo 6’, Oumar Barro 52’, Sidi Napon 56’, Ibrahim Talle 86’) DR Congo (0) 4 (Lokenge Mungongo 76’, 89’, Banza Kasongo 86’, Mbuilua Tondelua 88’). DR Congo won 4-1 on penalties.

2000: South Africa (1) 2 (Shaun Bartlett 11’, Siyabonga Nomvete 62’) Tunisia (1) 2 (Ali Zitouni 27’, 89’). South Africa won 4-3 on penalties.

2002: Mali 0 Nigeria (1) 1 (Yakubu Aiyegbeni 31’)

2004: Mali (0) 1 (Janvier Atouba 70’) Nigeria (1) 2 (Austin Okocha 17’, Peter Odemwingie 47’)

2006: Nigeria (0) 1 (Garba Lawal 79’) Senegal 0

2008: Ghana (1) 4 (Sulley Muntari 10’, Ouincy Owusu-Abeyie 70’, Junior Agogo 80’, Haminu Dramani 84’) Côte d’Ivoire (2) 2 (Boubacar Sanogo 24’, 32’)

2010: Algeria 0 Nigeria (0) 1 (Victor Obinna 56’)

2012: Ghana 0 Mali (1) 2 (Cheick Tidiane Diabate 23’, 80’)

2013: Ghana (0) 1 (Kwadwo Asamoah 82’) Mali (1) 3 (Mahamadou Samassa 21’, Seydou Keita 48’, Sigamary Diarra 89’)

2015: Equatorial Guinea 0 DR Congo 0. DR Congo won 4-2 on penalties.

2017: Burkina Faso (0) 1 (Alain Traoré 87’) Ghana 0

2019: Nigeria (1) 1 (Odion Ighalo 3’) Tunisia 0

2021: Cameroon (0) 3 (Stéphane Bahoken 71’, Vincent Aboubakar 85’, 87’) Burkina Faso (2) 3 (Steeve Yago 24’, André Onana 42’ o.g., Djibril Ouattara 49’). Cameroon won 5-3 on penalties.

2023: DR Congo 0 South Africa 0. South Africa won 6-5 on penalties