AFCON 2021: Interesting stats & facts from the Group Stage

After 36 games by 24 teams in eight groups, the Group Stage of AFCON 2021 is done, here are some of the statistical highlights.

The first round of Group Stage games at the 2021 AFCON was notoriously bereft of goals. After every team had played one game each, the first 12 games only provided 12 goals.

Cameroon beat Burkina Faso 2-1 in the opening game but each one of the subsequent 11 first-round games ended 1-0 or 0-0.

That was the lowest total number of goals scored in the first round of games at any AFCON since Mali 2002, when there were only five goals.

The difference is that back then there were only 16 teams, which meant they were eight first-round games. 

Egypt 2019 was the only other AFCON with 24 teams before now and there were 27 goals in 12 first-round games.  

Cameroon qualified top of Group A as expected, keeping up with the trend of host nations winning the group. Cameroon became the eighth host nation to win their group in the last 11 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, excluding co-hosted tournaments.

But the unexpected part of Cameroon’s campaign so far has been their leaky defence, which has seen them concede in all three Group Stage games.

As a result, Cameroon have become the first host nation to fail to keep a clean sheet in the group stage since Tunisia in 1994.

The caveat is that Tunisia only played two group stage games as there were only three teams per group in 1994 but Cameroon failed to keep a clean sheet in three games.

Between 1994 and 2021, there have been 13 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations and in each of those, the hosts kept at least one clean sheet in the group stage.

The underrated theme of this AFCON in Cameroon is the sense of deja vu; history has constantly repeated itself in the group stage.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria finished top of their group and won all three games, conceding just once in the process. The last time they achieved that feat was in 2006, and current interim head coach Augustine Eguavoen was also in charge of the team at the time.

It does not end there though, there are still more parallels. One of the three teams Nigeria defeated in 2006 was Ghana, who failed to qualify out of their group.

Ghana crashed out of Group C in Cameroon 2021, their first Group Stage exit at the AFCON since Egypt 2006.

So, Nigeria finishing the Group Stage with three wins and Ghana getting knocked out in the group stage has only happened at the same time twice in history, 2006 and 2021. Spooky!

Another recurrence is Algeria’s shabby AFCON title defence. The Algerians have only won the Africa Cup of Nations twice in their entire history and there are similarities between both titles.

In 1990 Algeria won the AFCON which they hosted and beat Nigeria (twice actually) en route to that trophy on North African soil.

The next AFCON was Senegal 1992 in West Africa, Algeria crashed out of the group stage losing to Ivory Coast in the process.

If that sounds familiar, it is because it literally just happened. Algeria won their second AFCON in Egypt 2019 and beat Nigeria in the semi-final on North African soil.

The next edition of the AFCON in Cameroon has played out almost exactly as 30 years ago. The Algerians crashed out of the group stage, losing to Ivory Coast in West Africa.

Nigeria were the only team to win all three games while Mauritania were the only team to lose all three group stage games.

Cameroon boasts of the best attack with seven goals in the Group Stage, making them the highest-scoring team while Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau were the only teams that failed to score in Cameroon.

Senegal remains the only team yet to concede a single goal, but they also have the distinction of being the only team left in the tournament without a goal from open play. In fact, Senegal have scored just once, making them the lowest scorers of the 16 remaining teams.