Africa Cup of Nations Group B Gets Decided Today

By: Daryl | January 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

Giant calculator for Nigeria vs Benin My brain hurts, and I think it’s Group B’s fault. The final round of games in the so-called Group of Death is today, with simultaneous 1700 GMT (1200 EST) kick-offs. Cote d’Ivoire are through but can seal top spot with a win or draw. Benin are out and can’t do anything to change that. Mali and Nigeria are contesting the final place. Berti Vogts is nervous. Below is the table and a run down of who needs to do what to qualify.

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. And that’s where it gets complicated…

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.

We’ll keep you updated on all the ins and outs on our two LiveBlogs:

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

Nigeria vs Benin - LiveBlog (1700 GMT)