Football: Five Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals facts

Ex-Nigeria winger Tijani Babangida (L) was involved in a ghastly motor accident with his brother, wife and son

Football: Five Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals facts

AFP Author • AFP • 12:16 - 31.01.2022

Nigeria winger Tijani Babangida (L) scored the quickest goal in an Africa Cup of Nations semi-final.

There have been 55 Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals from 1957 when Egypt defeated hosts Sudan 2-1 in the first and AFP Sport highlights five facts:

-- Nigeria winger Tijani Babangida scored the quickest goal just one minute into a 2-0 triumph over South Africa in Lagos 22 years ago. Babangida, then with Ajax Amsterdam, was the star of the show as he also netted the second goal for the co-hosts.  

-- Another former Ajax forward, South African Benni McCarthy, claimed the latest goal, 22 minutes into extra time in a 1998 victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo in Ouagadougou. McCarthy now coaches 2021-2022 CAF Champions League title contenders AmaZulu.

-- Raafat Attia scored the first goal, putting Egypt ahead against Sudan on 21 minutes in Khartoum 65 years ago. His clubs included future African giants Zamalek, named after a Cairo suburb, and later coached in Saudi Arabia.  

-- Zambia sharpshooter Bernard 'Bomber' Chanda scored the only hat-trick in 1974 against Congo Brazzaville in Cairo. Known as the KK XI in honour of then President Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia triumphed 4-2 after extra time.

-- The 55 matches have produced 161 goals at an average of 2.9 per semi-final. The most common scores have been 1-0 and 2-1 with 12 each, there have twice been seven goals while 4-0 was the widest winning margin and achieved three times.

var widgetLoaderConfig = widgetLoaderConfig || { CDN_URL: 'https://widgets.sportal365.com', APP_LINK: 'desktop', API_URL: 'https://africa.football.api.sportal365.com/', API_KEY: '2f852b4de2f3a5cf3188e74b33087bb4:2c18422f8e826a7d11aeed52edb2449e', LANG: 'en', REQUEST_INTERVAL: 30, ENABLE_BET_SLIP: false, AUTHOR: false, THEME: "light", TOURNAMENT_ORDER: "pulse_nigeria", LINK_OPTIONS_V2: { 'player' : { 'url': '/football/player/{playerId}' }, 'team' : { 'url': '/football/{teamId}' }, 'tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}' }, 'match': { 'url' : '/football/match/{matchId}', 'sort': { 'criteria': 'alphabetically', 'direction': 'asc' } }, 'configuration': { 'newWindow': false }, 'standings_tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}/standings' } } }; if (!document.querySelector('script[src="https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js"]')) { window.setTimeout(function () { let scriptCss = document.createElement('link'); scriptCss.href = 'https://www.pulsesports.ng/css/sport-widgets.css?v=1668785443'; scriptCss.rel = 'stylesheet'; scriptCss.type = 'text/css'; document.body.appendChild(scriptCss); let scriptTag = document.createElement('script'); scriptTag.src = 'https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js'; scriptTag.defer = true; scriptTag.onload = function () { window.setTimeout(function () { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }, 200); }; document.head.appendChild(scriptTag); }, 0); } else { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }
Tags: