Nigeria leading xG table, Morocco's stunning performance and other key stats from AFCON 2023 so far

AFCON 2023 has already defied sceptics with its overly attacking outlook, but which stats have stood out from the competition in Ivory Coast so far?

The first round of games in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations has come and gone with some incredible performances, while many of the pre-tournament favourites suffered shockingly poor starts to the tournament.

The opening round of fixtures threw up quite a few numbers, with Senegal’s Lamine Camara and Morocco’s air-tight backline taking the biggest plaudits, while Nigeria also showed up with a mixed bag of telling stats.

Nigeria leads xG table at AFCON

Despite the disappointment of the result against Equatorial Guinea, the Super Eagles can take solace in the fact that they were the most threatening team in the first round of matches.

The Super Eagles created more big chances (7) than any other team, beating Senegal (5) and Morocco (4) who both won their opening matches 3-0.

Nigeria also had more expected goals (3.5xG) than any other team in the opening round of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, with Cape Verde (3.0) coming in second.

The downside to Nigeria creating so many high-quality chances and scoring only one goal during their match against Equatorial Guinea is that the Super Eagles are also the team with the most big chances missed, with as many as six clear-cut chances against the Elephants going begging.

Senegal missed four despite their 3-0 win over Gambia during their opening game, while the Teranga Lions’ victory was also helped by the fact that the Scorpions were also profligate, missing three big chances.

Race for the Golden Boot

One of the major culprits for Nigeria’s inability to turn good chances to goals was star striker Victor Osimhen, who, despite scoring the Super Eagles’ only goal, also missed two clear-cut chances, including a one-on-one opportunity at the start of the second half.

Although Osimhen could have had a hat-trick, he is stuck on one goal, behind leading goalscorer Lamine Camara, who struck twice for Senegal in their opener against Gambia.

The 20-year-old became the second-youngest player to score a brace at an AFCON tournament in the 21st century and leads the scoring charts going into the second round of fixtures, ahead of more heralded stars like Osimhen, Mohamed Salah, and Youssef En-Nesyri who have scored one goal each.

Stingy AFCON defences

At the other end of the pitch the 2023 AFCON tournament is shaping up to be one of the least frugal tournaments, with teams giving up goals at a higher rate than any other edition in the last decade.

With 2.25 goals per match, there have been 15% more goals per game in this edition than in the last AFCON tournament in 20222 in Cameroon.

Despite the high-scoring nature of the tournament, some defences have still remained watertight, stifling the opposition’s chance-creating efforts.

Most notably, Morocco, one of the favourites for the competition, were incredibly dominant against Tanzania in their 3-0 win.

They faced the least shots on goal (2) of the first round, and were the only team in the round not to face a single shot on target.

The Atlas Lions goalkeeper Yassine Bounou could have been on vacation in the match against Tanzania without worry as they opened their AFCON campaign by laying down a marker of near perfection.

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