The Africa Cup of Nations Situation - Group B

By: Daryl | January 29th, 2008

Berti Vogts worries Group A wrapped yesterday at the Africa Cup of Nations with Ghana and Guinea the lucky two going through to the quarterfinals. Today it’s the final round of - cue scary music - The Group of Death. Benin are definitely finished and Cote d’Ivoire are already through, so the last remaining place will go to either Mali or Nigeria. Berti Vogts should be a worried man. His Super Eagles are yet to score and the regular Eagles of Mali are very much in the driving seat going in to today. Group B table and guide to who needs to do what is below:

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Côte d’Ivoire	2	2	0	0	5	1	+4	6
Mali	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	4
Nigeria	2	0	1	1	0	1	-1	1
Benin	2	0	0	2	1	5	-4	0

Who needs what in order to qualify:

Côte d’Ivoireare already through. A win or draw against Mali puts them in first place, a defeat means they slip to second. Either way they’ll be in the quarter-finals, but they’d surely prefer to finish top of Group B and avoid Ghana in the last eight.

Mali can take first place with a win against Cote d’Ivoire, or can guarantee second place with a draw. It’s worth Mali going for the win to try and avoid Ghana in the quarter-finals. If Mali lose, and Nigeria beat Benin, then the two teams finish level on four points.

Nigeria need to beat Benin and hope Mali lose to Cote d’Ivoire. Then, because Nigeria and Mali drew 0-0 head-to-head, it’s all about goal difference. Mali currently has a +2 advantage, so for Nigeria to qualify they would need to beat Benin by more than one goal, or for Mali to lose by more than one goal or Nigeria needs to score more goals than Mali in Group B total. So, if Nigeria win 1-0 and Mali lose 1-0 then it’s all level and comes down to Fair Play. But a 2-1 win for Nigeria and a 1-0 loss for Mali would send Nigeria through having scored more goals. Nigeria currently have two yellow cards to Mali’s four and so would progress on Fair Play if that remains the same. If the card count finishes equal then lots will be drawn.

Benin can’t finish higher than third.

Simultaneous kick-offs for today’s games so all the drama unfolds at once. To follow this rather complicated but possibly very exciting action, visit our Africa Cup of Nations coverage at World Cup Blog:

Côte d’Ivoire vs Mali - LiveBlog (1700 GMT)

Nigeria vs Benin - LiveBlog (1700 GMT)