Things are really starting to heat up at the Africa Cup of Nations 2019. The Round of 16 has wrapped up and now we’re down to only 8 teams. Egypt, who were considered one of the favorites, have been knocked out of the tournament by South Africa. Egypt were off to an amazing start by remaining undefeated and leading their group before getting upset by South Africa. South Africa had a rough start and barely made it out of the group stage where they only won 1 match. It’s disappointing Egypt were eliminated in the first bracket stage. Everyone was expecting to see them make it to the final in their home country where they served as the host team of the tournament.
Star Players
There have been many amazing performances throughout the tournament so far. Let’s look at the top scorers in the Africa Cup of Nations 2019 thus far.
Sadio Mané (Senegal)
Sadio may have had a rough start against Algeria but he certainly showed up in the next two games against Uganda and Kenya. He ended up scoring a total of 3 goals and should have plenty of matches to increase that number if they make it all the way to the finals. He has had an amazing year so far with Liverpool and won the Champions League medal. But he wants to bring the gold home to Senegal and make it their first win at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Sadio Highlights (Senegal vs Kenya)
Odion Ighalo (Nigeria)
Odion had his best showing in the comeback victory over Cameroon where he had 2 goals and 1 assist. His other goal came against the opening match with Burundi where he didn’t start and was substituted later in the match. During his career in 2017-2018, he played in the Chinese Super League for Changchun Yatai but later switching to Shanghai Greenland Shenhua earlier this year. He certainly had a strong performance during the qualification stage of the Africa Cup of Nations. Odion was on fire and scored 7 goals, the highest of any player!
Odion Goal (Nigeria vs Burundi)
Adam Ounas (Algeria)
Adam led as the top scorer on his team with 2 goals in the match against Tanzania where they finished on top of their group. He would join Sadio and Odion as the tournament leaders when he was substituted in the match with Guinea and scored a goal in the 82nd minute. Adam was born in France but his parents are Algerian which makes him eligible to play for either country internationally. He made the decision to switch from the France under-20 team to Algeria in October 2016.
Adam Goal (Algeria vs Guinea)
VIP Customer Predictions
Since our customers are such huge soccer fans, we asked them to pick the winning team.
Egypt were the biggest favorite before the round of 16 kicked off with 25% of the votes cast in their favor. The second biggest favorite was Ghana with 20%. Out of the remaining 8 teams in the tournament, Nigeria led the way by accumulating 10% votes.
Some other top picks were the following:
Senegal 9%
Cameroon 8%
Morocco 6%
Algeria 4%
One good thing is at least all the teams got some love! This is Burundi’s first appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations but there were some votes cast in their favor. Unfortunately, they received the fewest votes since they are viewed as such an underdog.
Final Prediction
Algeria is a probably the top favorite still left in the tournament at this point. They led their group with dominance and have yet to be defeated. But anything can happen as we have seen both Egypt and Morocco eliminated in the Round of 16. Nigeria and Senegal have star players that could easily help them win the tournament and bring back gold to their country!
Who do you think will win?
