Ahead of the quarterfinal fixtures billed for Friday and Saturday, Super Eagles star Ademola Lookman will be among players seeking to increase their goal tally in the tournament.
The championship has produced a series of fond memories and one of those is the interesting number of goals that have been recorded.
So far in the 2023 AFCON, Emilio Nsue who plays for the Spanish lower league club, Intercity, and Equatorial Guinea is currently the highest goalscorer in the tournament.
The 34-year-old winger has scored five goals in four games for Equatorial Guinea who finished top of Group A ahead of Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
Equatorial Guinea’s Emilo Nsue scored five goals before bowing out.
Unfortunately, the veteran footballer will not have the chance to add more goals to his tally following their exit from the tournament in the round of 16. His exit leaves other players in contention an opportunity to overtake the record and perhaps surpass it depending on how far they can go with their teams.
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Closing in on the five goals scored by Nsue is Mostafa Mohamed of Egypt who had scored four goals in the tournament before he and his teammates were knocked out will not be able to add to his tally.
Hence, Gelson Dala of Angola who is also on four goals has a big chance of overtaking Nsue if he manages to score two goals against Nigeria in the quarter-final clash at 6 p.m. on Friday, February 2.
In the case of Ademola who may be two time lucky to grabbed a hat-trick against Palanca Negras on Friday, and while not one may ask anything can happen in football.
Below are the highest goalscorers in the 2023 AFCON ahead of the quarter-finals stage:
1. Emilio Nsue (Five goals, Equatorial Guinea).
2. Egypt’s Mostafa Mohamed and Angola’s Gelson Dala (four goals).
3. Algeria’s Baghdad Bounedjah, Burkina Faso’s Bertrand Traoré, Mali’s Sinayoko, and Angola’s Mabululu Paciência (3 goals).
4. Nigeria’s Ademola Lookman, Ghana’s Jordan Ayew, Senegal’s Lamine Camara, Cape Verde’s Mendes da Graça, Ghana’s Mohammed Kudus, and South Africa’s Themba Zwane (two goals).
