In order to keep their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China aspirations alive, the host of the second leg of Group F, Cote d'Ivoire which will slug it today against the D' Tigers must beat Nigeria preferably by a significant margin.
Failure to beat the Alex Nwora' lads who has new debutants Gaziantep of Turkey centre, Tonye Jekiri and Gombe Bull’s rising star, Buchi Agu in his team may deny the Elephants to pick one out of the two tickets available for Africa countries .
The last window starts today and runs until Sunday in Abidjan.
The Ivorians would secure a spot in the World Cup as the second-placed team in Group F if they win their last three games and Senegal lose their last three games.
They can also qualify as the best-ranked third-placed team from across Groups E and F if they win their last three games with a combined margin of at least 65 or 66 points, depending on the number of points scored (65 if they score over 294 points, 66 points if they score under 294).
It might seem mission impossible for Cote d'Ivoire, especially because of Nigeria's dominancy and consistency since the start of the qualifiers.
As Cote d'Ivoire head coach Paolo Povia once said: "it'll be difficult but it won't be impossible."
Back in June 2018, Nigerians and Ivorians drew a two-game warm-up series in Abidjan ahead of the third window of the African Qualifiers.
However, when it came to official competitions the D'Tigers have topped the 'Elephants' 2-0 dating back to the FIBA AfroBasket 2017.
D' Tigers coach Nwora assures dominance
Ahead of today's match, D' Tigers coach Alex Nwora has urged his team to stay grounded and show their dominance as the number one team in Africa.
“I know we are going to face a lot of hostilities from the crowd. They have all their players and even brought in a couple of new players that were not in Nigeria when they played us.
“It doesn’t matter whether they are playing at home or not. We just have to do what we have to do even though we don’t have some of our marquee players, but we just have to show dominance here." He said.
For the Ivorians, this could be the most important game of their history in recent years, while the Nigerians will be more concerned about improving and extending their impressive 9-0 record, which allowed them to become one of the first teams to qualify for the China 2019 showpiece.
Players to watch
Nigeria have used more than 30 players throughout the qualifiers, and as they head to Abidjan for their final three games, head coach Alex Nwora kept the core of the team, including team captain Ike Diogu and Ikenna Iroegbu. But the return of Michael Umeh and Ekene Ibekwe adds a lot more power-fire to the D'Tigers.
Meanwhile, the Ivorians selected some of their assets for the challenge. Guy Edi, Souleyman Diabate, Mohamed Kone and Herve Lamizana have all featured for Cote d'Ivoire at FIBA Basketball World Cup 2010 in Turkey.
Number don't lie
Nigeria have scored more points per game than any other African team (99.1) and are the only team to have a FG% of more than 50 percent. (51.7%).
Cote d’Ivoire have made 5.4 three-pointers per game in these qualifiers, less than any other Group F team.
Source: FIBA
Reviewed by Dotun Omisakin. Sports journalist
on
8:08 PM
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