Friday Jan 16, 2026. 11:18
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations bronze medal will be up for grabs when Egypt and Nigeria Nigeria square off in the third place playoff at the Mohammed V Stadium on Saturday.
Kick-off is at 6pm CAT (SA, GMT+2)
The Super Eagles were one of the favourites to go all the way in Morocco after winning their opening five matches and scoring the most goals (14) en-route to the semi-finals.
However, Eric Chelle’s side saw their perfect record in the tournament come to an end at the hands of the Atlas Lions, who produced a defensive masterclass to limit their opponents to just two shots in 120 minutes of football.
The AFCON 2023 losing finalists were eventually eliminated 4-2 on penalties following a 0-0 draw after extra time and they will now battle it out with the Pharaohs for the bronze medal.
“Losing on penalties is very painful. It’s difficult because we worked hard throughout the entire tournament, but that’s football. We must continue working,” Chelle said.
“The African Cup [of Nations] is not finished. We have to stay focused on the next game, and we have to win this game.”
Egypt, who have won the title a record seven times, didn’t really dazzle at the continental showpiece, although they were involved in one of the joint-highest-scoring games after beating defending champions Ivory Coast 3-2 in the quarter-finals.
Hossam Hassan’s side made an unbeaten run to the semi-finals, but they were far too defensive against Senegal, managing just three attempts at goal before being undone by Sadio Mane’s winner in the 78th minute.
This is the 10th meeting between the two teams at AFCON and their most recently encounter came in the 2021 edition when Nigeria ran out narrow 1-0 victors during the group stages.