The first two days of the Africa Cup of Nations have thrown up a few shock results already, which could be bad news for Arsenal.
At the time of writing, only four games have taken place at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations, but we’ve arguably already had three surprising results.
Ivory Coast breezing past Guinea Bissau 2-0 was predictable,
But Nigeria, Egypt, and Ghana have all failed to win their opening games against lower-ranked opponents.
Arsenal have no stake in Nigeria’s success, other than perhaps a desire to see Alex Iwobi doing well. But the other two teams could have an impact on the Gunners’ upcoming matches.
Egypt took on Mozambique on Sunday, with Arsenal’s Mohamed Elneny and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah both starting the match.
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Arsenal are set to face Liverpool on February 4th, a fixture which roughly coincides with the AFCON quarter-finals.
Egypt’s progression through the tournament has the dual benefit of being good news for popular Arsenal figure Elneny, whilst also keeping Salah out of the Emirates Stadium clash.
Yet it was only a 96th-minute penalty that saved Egypt from an opening-game defeat to Mozambique. The match finished 2-2, and it raised questions about Egypt’s credentials at the tournament.
In the other game in the same group, Cape Verde scored in the dying seconds to secure a win over Ghana.
Again, Arsenal have a vested interest in Ghana’s progress. The Gunners have a game against West Ham United coming up, with their star man Mohammed Kudus in the Ghana squad
Though he wasn’t fit to feature in their opening game.
Ghana would need to reach the AFCON semi-finals for Kudus to be guaranteed to miss the Arsenal game, but an opening-day defeat leaves them in a tough spot. The Black Stars face Egypt next.
As many as three teams can progress from each AFCON group,
So it’s still very possible that both Ghana and Egypt turn things around to reach the next stage. At least one of them should go through.
But they’ve given themselves an uphill task.
