AFCON 2021:  Facts File On Semi-Finals spotlights Nigeria’s Tijani Babangida

Apart from the 1976 edition which was played throughout on league basis, there have been 55 Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals from 1957 to 2019.

Here are some points of interests in the previous 55 Africa Cup of Nations semi-final matches.

• It was in Nigeria that a semi-final match was first decided on penalties. On 19 March 1980 at the Liberty Stadium, now renamed Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan, Egypt and Algeria played a 2-2 draw and the match was decided by penalty shoot-out which Algeria won 3-2.

• Nigeria’s speedy right winger who operated from the left wing in the encounter with South Africa scored the fastest goal in an Africa Cup of Nations semi-final in a 2-0 victory for the Super Eagles. Under a minute from kick-off, he rounded up South African defender, Mark Fish to open scoring. Minutes later, he scored the second goal.
• The most delayed goal of the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals was scored by South Africa’s Benni McCarthy in 1998 in an encounter with DR Congo in Ouagadougou, Mali. The goal came in the 112^th minute of a match that stretched into extra time.
• There have been only one hat-trick in an Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals. It was scored by Zambia’s Bernard Chanda in a 4-2 defeat of Congo in 1974.