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Synonymously known as the beautiful game, the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia has so far proved to be anything but “beautiful” for African teams.
Nigeria went into their clash against Iceland on Friday afternoon with one lingering thought in the back of their heads – the fact that of the seven matches featuring an African team so far, six of them have ended in defeat and great disappointment for African supporters.
This poor display by African teams has left little hope of any new benchmarks being set among African footballing faithfuls.
A lot of the continent’s hope had been placed on Africa Cup of Nations record winners, Egypt, led by their Liverpool star forward Mohamed Salah.
The Pharaohs were however the first team to be eliminated from the competition after suffering defeats to Uruguay and Russia in their first two matches.
Morocco were the next African team to follow as they were knocked out of the tournament by a Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Portugal.
A fourth minute Ronaldo goal was enough to send Morocco packing as the defeat meant the African side had lost both their opening Group B matches.
Nigeria and Tunisia, who both failed to offer any glimpse of potential as they lost their opening group encounters, could be the next teams to bite the dust if they do not manage a positive result in their upcoming clashes against Iceland and Belgium respectively.
The Super Eagles' game against Iceland could effectively knock Argentina out of the World Cup at the group stage or see Nigeria being the third African team to be eliminated from the tournament.
If Iceland wins they will have four points – the maximum number of points Argentina could still get if they win their last group game against Nigeria. Should that be the case, the tiebreaker will be decided on goal difference, not head-to-head like the Euros.
Another possible scenario would be Nigeria beating Iceland and then drawing or winning again against Argentina – a scenario which will effectively knock Argentina out of the tournament.
The last time Argentina were knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage was 1962.
Senegal, affectionately known as the Lions of Teranga, have been the only team to salvage a victory albeit an unconvincing one as they capitalised on two errors from Poland to land a 2-1 win.
After the match, Senegal coach Aliou Cisse said: “It’s a bit too early to say why the African sides are not doing well.”
However, the failure may be credited to the fact that of the six goals scored by African teams so far, three of them have been against themselves.
Morocco, Nigeria and Egypt have all netted own goals resulting in fans taking to social media and dubbing African teams “prolific own-goal scorers.”
Set piece defending has also been an area of concern with both Nigeria and Tunisia conceding two goals from corner kicks and free kicks.
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