After Nigeria beat Egypt 1 - 0 on Tuesday in Group D opening March, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Model calculation that predicted Nigeria as the favorite to win the 33th edition of Africa cup of Nations came to the fore again.
Perhaps, at first, not many people, including me, believed that Nigeria can defeat Egypt with such dominance and control of the entire duration of the game, therefore took the prediction with a pinch of salt.
The AI calculation predicted that Nigeria has the highest probability (14.79%) to win the trophy in Cameroon. A slight difference from Morocco with the second highest probability of 14.77%
The numbers are so close between Nigeria and Morocco that we should probably consider them co-favourites for the Africa Cup of Nations, but finalists don’t split trophies and neither do we. Neither Nigeria nor Morocco lost during the AFCON 2021 qualifiers, but they did it in different ways. Morocco only conceded once, while Nigeria let in seven goals in six matches against Sierra Leone, Benin and Lesotho.
And when Morocco defeated Ghana 1 - 0 at first, people began to take the AI Model seriously. All data correct at the time of writing, the AI model considered current stats of all the players available for each team in the tournament and weigh it with several factors as weather suitability and team stability.
The second calculation that seems so correct is the numbers awarded to the current form of the players, in which Moses Simon, Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho were allotted the highest numbers and we saw it play out in the game against Egypt.
Moses Simon was a constant threat to the Egyptian defence and provided the cross that led to the eventual goal from Kelechi Iheanacho.
Kelechi Iheanacho's combination with Taiwo Awoniyi's and Moses Simon was so remarkable in the middle of pack. And his two touches volley was a delight of a goal that made him the Man of the match.
