The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations has reached the quarter-final stage and the first of those takes place in Abidjan on Friday evening, with Nigeria facing Angola as two unbeaten teams collide.

Having kept three clean sheets in a row, the Super Eagles look defensively solid and to have a platform for success, despite possessing some of the best attacking talents with the likes of Victor Osimhen in their squad. They beat Cameroon in the last 16 thanks to an Ademola Lookman brace to arrive at this stage.

Angola hit three past Namibia at the same stage to book a last-eight berth, but will face Nigeria without first-choice goalkeeper Neblu after his red card in that victory. Follow Nigeria vs Angola below for live updates and team news and get all the latest Afcon odds and tips here.

Afcon quarter-final kicks off at 5pm GMT

DR Congo vs Guinea follows at 8pm

Nigeria XI: Nwabah; Ekong, Ajayi, Bassey; Zaidu, Onyeka, Iwobi, Ola Aina; Lookman, Osimhen, Simon

Angola XI: Antonio; Afonso, Gaspar, Buatu, Carneiro; Fredy, Show, Estrela; Gilberto, Mabululu, Gelson Dala

16:07 , Jack Rathborn

Nigeria XI: Nwabah; Ekong, Ajayi, Bassey; Zaidu, Onyeka, Iwobi, Ola Aina; Lookman, Osimhen, Simon

Angola XI: Antonio; Afonso, Gaspar, Buatu, Carneiro; Fredy, Show, Estrela; Gilberto, Mabululu, Gelson Dala

16:06 , Jack Rathborn

Nigeria's XI vs Angola: – Nwabali starts in goal– Peseiro names an unchanged XI #NGAANG | #AFCON2023 pic.twitter.com/KPyo0Qdw09

— Soar Super Eagles (@SSE_NGA) February 2, 2024

15:55 , Karl Matchett

Rewind to the mid- and late-1990s and there was just one African nation widely expected to become the big challenger to European and South American countries on the international football landscape: Nigeria.

The Super Eagles reached the last 16 in both ‘94 and ‘98, the iconic team of Jay-Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Finidi George and Daniel Amokachi, later added to by Nwankwo Kanu, Taribo West and Celestine Babayaro. With a significant section of the latter squad aged 24 and under, it seemed they should only go from strength to strength, particularly after winning the Africa Cup of Nations in ‘94 as well.

It didn’t quite happen that way.

Nigeria withdrew from the following Afcon after Sani Abacha’s coup d’etat, then were banned from the ‘98 edition as a consequence. It was 19 years until they won their next (and so far last) Afcon and - more notably perhaps - it is now a full quarter of a century since France ‘98, during which time they have won matches on just two further occasions at World Cup finals.

An entire generation of supporters, of citizens and indeed of playing talent have grown up since that early promise and had to watch on as Nigeria squander chances or fall short - but perhaps this time around the stars have aligned for the modern Super Eagles to reach their potential and fly to glory in Ivory Coast.

Karl Matchett on Nigeria’s unexpected chance to end generation of missed opportunities:

Nigeria handed unexpected chance to end generation of missed opportunities

15:45 , Karl Matchett

The Africa Cup of Nations has reached the knockout stages, as Ivory Coast play host for the second time in the competition’s history.

Of the 24 nations taking part in the Afcon, Senegal were installed as the pre-tournament favourites, but the reigning champions have been knocked about amid a flurry of surprising results. The previous beaten finalists, Egypt, have also been knocked out, as have World Cup semi-finalists Morocco, who many tipped to go all the way here.

The quarter-final line-up is: Nigeria v Angola, DR Congo v Guinea, Mali v Ivory Coast, Cape Verde v South Africa.

The tournament is officially Afcon 2023, despite taking place in 2024, after it was pushed back several months due to concerns over the Senegalese heat in the summer months.

Here is the full schedule of fixtures, dates and kick-off times.

Afcon quarter-finals: Africa Cup of Nations fixtures, start times and TV channels

15:35 , The Independent

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13:42 , Karl Matchett

Good afternoon and welcome to the Independent’s live coverage of the Africa Cup of Nations, where today we have Nigeria facing Angola in the quarter-finals.

We’ll have all the team news and build-up right here, with kick-off set for 5pm GMT.