For all of Nigeria’s pedigree and power, AFCON has always been a tournament that leaves space for belief. And on Tuesday night in Fez, Tanzania, will step onto that familiar African stage, carrying little else but belief and a dream they insist is still alive.
The Africa Cup of Nations 2025 clash between Nigeria’s Super Eagles and Tanzania’s Taifa Stars is, on paper, a one-sided affair. Three-time African champions against a side still searching for its first-ever AFCON victory. Giants versus hopefuls. History versus hunger.
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Yet Tanzania head coach Miguel Gamondi insists the past does not have to dictate the future.
“It’s our dream, and nobody can stop us from believing and dreaming,” Gamondi said at his pre-match press conference.
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“If you don’t have a dream, it doesn’t make sense to sleep too much. I respect Nigeria a lot, but in football anything is possible. We are here to make a good performance.”
A winless history, a stubborn hope
Tanzania have appeared at three AFCON tournaments: 1980, 2019 and 2023, and across nine matches, they have yet to taste victory. Tuesday’s Group C opener at the Complexe Sportif de Fès will mark their 10th AFCON game, another chance to rewrite a story that has resisted change for over four decades.
Their AFCON journey, ironically, began in Nigeria in 1980. That debut ended with three defeats, starting with a 3–1 loss to the Super Eagles, followed by defeats to Egypt and the Ivory Coast. Forty-five years later, the two nations meet again at AFCON, only the second such encounter in the competition’s history.
Their most recent competitive meeting came during qualification for the 2017 AFCON, a goalless draw in Dar es Salaam, before Nigeria edged the return fixture 1–0 in Uyo in September 2016.
Realism without surrender
Gamondi is not blind to Nigeria’s superiority. He acknowledges it openly, but refuses to let it define his team’s mindset.
“I’m very realistic about the possibilities. Maybe Nigeria have 99 per cent, but you never know,” he admitted.
“I am confident we can do something. If we do what we need to do and are able to win, beating Nigeria would feel like winning the AFCON for us, especially at the start of the tournament.”
It is the language of an underdog fully aware of the odds, yet unwilling to kneel before them.
Signs of progress, not miracles
While Tanzania’s AFCON record remains bare, there have been hints of evolution. At the 2019 tournament, former Super Eagles winger Emmanuel Amuneke led them back to AFCON after a 39-year absence, though they again exited without a win. At AFCON 2023 in the Ivory Coast, the Taifa Stars showed more resilience, drawing against Zambia and DR Congo after an opening defeat to Morocco.
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Those draws did not change history, but they suggested momentum; the slow, stubborn kind that underdogs cling to.
The road ahead
After Nigeria, Tanzania face Uganda on Friday before concluding their Group C campaign against Tunisia next Tuesday. The margins are thin, the task enormous. But for Gamondi and his players, belief is non-negotiable.
Nigeria may walk into Fez with reputation, ranking and expectation firmly on their side. Tanzania arrive with none of that, only a dream, and the quiet conviction that AFCON, more than any tournament on earth, has room for one more shock.
Kick-off is Tuesday night in Fez. History says one thing. AFCON, as always, reserves the right to say another.
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