This group has the peculiarity of having a total of five AFCON titles, combining the three won by Nigeria and the two by Ivory Coast.

To ensure you're prepared and don't miss any details before AFCON 2023 kicks off, let's take a comprehensive look at Group A.

Nigeria

AFCON Titles

Nigeria boasts three African Cup of Nations titles, making it the fourth team with the most titles in the competition's history.

1980 – Nigeria 3 vs. 0 Algeria – at the National Stadium in Lagos (champion in its own country)

1994 – Nigeria 2 vs. 1 Zambia – at the Olympic Stadium El Menzah

2013 – Nigeria 1 vs. 0 Burkina Faso – Soccer City Stadium

Nigeria also holds the record for the most third-place finishes in this competition, with eight third-place finishes in 1976, 1978, 1992, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2019.

Historical Top Scorer in AFCON
Rashidi Yekini with thirteen goals in twenty matches, also ranking third in the all-time AFCON top scorers' list. He participated in four editions: 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994.

Player to Watch
Victor Osimhen – The Nigerian forward, coming off a league championship with Napoli and a quarter-final appearance in the Champions League with over 30 goals, is the star of the Napoli squad. In the AFCON qualifiers, he scored ten goals and provided two assists to secure Nigeria's spot.

Performance in the Last Edition
Nigeria started the group stage of the last edition strongly, earning 9 out of 9 points available to advance to the Round of 16. However, overconfidence became the enemy of the Super Eagles in the knockout stage, as they were eliminated by Tunisia with a 1-0 score.

Guinea-Bissau

Best AFCON Performance
Guinea-Bissau has never advanced past the group stage in any of the editions it has participated in and has only managed to draw matches, with no victories in AFCON history.

Player to Watch
Piqueti Djassi Brito Silva – The forward at Al-Shoulla, who represented Portugal at the U-20 level with seven goals in the current campaign.

Performance in the Last Edition
In AFCON 2021, Guinea-Bissau did not perform well, facing Nigeria, Egypt, and Sudan in Group E, where they only managed to secure 1 point by drawing one match and losing the other two.

Equatorial Guinea

Best AFCON Performances
Equatorial Guinea has participated in three AFCON editions:

2012 (host and reached quarter-finals)

2015 (host and finished in 4th place)

2021 (quarter-finals)

Top Scorer in AFCON
 Emilio Nsue (34 years old, 17 goals, and team captain) plays for CF Intercity (ESP), functioning as a right-back or winger.

Player to Watch
The Equatorial Guinea national team will aim to make a splash and go further in this new edition of AFCON 2023-24. Players like José Nabil Ondó, forward Salomón Obama, and Jesús Lázaro Owono provide an opportunity to bring joy to the Equatorial Guinea community.

Performance in the Last Edition
In AFCON 2021, Equatorial Guinea faced Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Algeria in the group stage. They advanced as the second-placed team with a total of 6 points. In the knockout stage, they defeated Mali in the Round of 16 through a penalty shootout (5-6). However, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Senegal with a 3-1 score.

Ivory Coast

AFCON Titles
Ivory Coast has participated in 25 editions and has been crowned champions twice (1992 and 2015).

1992 – Ivory Coast 0 vs. 0 Ghana (11-10 on penalties)

2015 – Ivory Coast 0 vs. 0 Ghana (9-8 on penalties)

Historical Top Scorer in AFCON

 Laurent Pokou (14)

Player to Follow

Coached by Jean-Louis Gasset, Ivory Coast will seek their third AFCON title, which they haven't achieved since 2015. A squad featuring players like Nicolas Pépé (Trabzonspor), Sébastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund), Franck Kessié (Al Ahli), Serge Aurier (Nottingham Forest), and young Odilon Kossounou (Bayer Leverkusen) aims for glory on home soil.

Performance in the Last Edition

Ivory Coast will face unique pressure as the host nation in this tournament. They also want to overcome the disappointment of the last AFCON in 2021 when they were eliminated in the Round of 16 against Egypt. Despite being automatically qualified for this tournament as the host, Ivory Coast played in the qualifiers, specifically in Group H, where they finished second, tied on points with Zambia.

This overview should give you a comprehensive understanding of Group A before the start of AFCON 2023.