The 2023 AFCON was always going to be an open tournament, but not everyone could have predicted just how wide open it could be so much so that favourites like Morocco and Senegal will not go past the Round of 16.
Other major casualties in one of the most open AFCONs in recent memory were Africa’s three other flag bearers at the 2022 World Cup – Ghana, Tunisia and Cameroon.
Some have explained that the gap has closed between the big and small teams with some even saying there are no longer minnows on the continent.
Personally, I see it a little differently – the big teams must step up their game to beat whoever they come up against as it is no longer enough to just show up and win a game.
And now from not being one of the fancied teams to win the trophy, the Super Eagles have steadily but surely made their way to top reckoning.
The 2023 AFCON reminds Nigerians very much of what happened at the 2013 tournament in South Africa, where the Super Eagles were not ranked among the top teams, stumbled in their opening two games with draws only for them to rise to the occasion against Cote d’Ivoire on their way to a third continental crown.
At the 2023 tournament, a disappointing 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea was the ammunition critics needed to fire at coach Jose Peseiro and his team.
Incidentally, like it was 11 years ago in South Africa, the performance and most importantly the result against Cote d’Ivoire was the turning point for the Super Eagles at the on-going competition.
It was also the first game Peseiro employed the 3-4-3 formation after he had used the 4-3-3 system the previous game.
The team were still learning the ropes with the new formation by the time they played their final group game against Guinea Bissau.
They were more comfortable with the formation when they took the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon to the cleaners in the Round of 16.
They will be expected to have mastered the system against Angola Friday.
Also, Peseiro now has a very settled first team with numerous options and except for injury, this is the team he will line up going forward.
Interestingly, both fans and critics are united that especially following the shock exit of Senegal and Morocco, this AFCON is for Nigeria to lose.
Only the Super Eagles can defeat themselves.
The players can sense that after what many of them have achieved at their clubs in Europe, this is by far the biggest chance for them to make history at full international level.
It will not be easy, nothing good is easy, but if they remain focused, confident but not arrogant, they can now go all the way to a fourth AFCON title.
Yes, now more than ever before, the Super Eagles can do it again.
It is much more than a wishful slogan.
