Hosts of the second leg of Group F, which starts tomorrow and runs until Sunday in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire couldn’t face Nigeria in a trickier situation.<\/p>\n
As well as Nigeria, they will face Rwanda and Mali – in this order – in an attempt to become one of the five African teams to qualify for the 32-nation FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China.<\/p>\n
The ‘Elephants’ have their backs against the wall, and they must beat Nigeria (preferably by a significant margin) tomorrow in order to keep their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 aspirations alive. Rwanda and Mali no longer have chances to qualify.<\/p>\n
The Ivorians would secure a spot in the World Cup as the second-placed team in Group F if they win their last three games and Senegal loses their last three games.<\/p>\n
They can also qualify as the best-ranked third-placed team from across Groups E and F if they win their last three games with a combined margin of at least 65 or 66 points, depending on the number of points scored (65 if they score over 294 points, 66 points if they score under 294).<\/p>\n
It might seem mission impossible for Cote d’Ivoire, especially because of Nigeria’s dominance and consistency since the start of the qualifiers.<\/p>\n
As Cote d’Ivoire head coach, Paolo Povia once said: “it’ll be difficult but it won’t be impossible.”<\/p>\n
Back in June 2018, Nigerians and Ivorians drew a two-game warm-up series in Abidjan ahead of the third window of the African Qualifiers.<\/p>\n
However, when it came to official competitions, the D’Tigers have topped the ‘Elephants’ 2-0 dating back to the FIBA AfroBasket 2017.<\/p>\n
For the Ivorians, this could be the most important game of their history in recent years, while the Nigerians will be more concerned about improving and extending their impressive 9-0 record, which allowed them to become one of the first teams to qualify for the China 2019 showpiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hosts of the second leg of Group F, which starts tomorrow and runs until Sunday in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire couldn’t face Nigeria in a trickier situation. As well as Nigeria, they will face Rwanda and Mali – in this order – in an attempt to become one of the five African teams to qualify for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":1710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[116,122],"class_list":["post-5078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-football","tag-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n