Nigeria have been drawn in Group D of the delayed 2024 African Nations Championships billed to be jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Soccernet.football reports.
The draw was conducted on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, inside the Kenyatta International Conventional Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
The home-based Super Eagles were drawn with reigning CHAN champions Senegal as well as Congo and Sudan for the tournament set to kick off in August.
Nigeria’s Eagles are returning to the CHAN competitions after missing the last two editions. However, the Super Eagles B will be looking to go one better than the runner-up finish they managed at their last appearance in 2018.
With only two teams billed to make it out of each group, Nigeria will face stiff opposition from Sudan, who were third-place finishers in 2011 and 2018, as well as Congo, a team that has made it to the quarterfinals twice.
However, Senegal, who beat hosts Algeria in the final of the last edition to win their first trophy, will be favourites to win the group ahead of Nigeria.
The result of the other group draws showed that Group A would easily take the tag of the ‘Group of Death’ as it comprises co-host Kenya, two-time winners Morocco, and another two-time champion DR Congo, Angola and Zambia.
The five teams that will also compete in Group B are Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Central African Republic.
Group C also contain five teams, but only three have been decided, and they are Uganda, Niger, and Guinea, while the other two slots are reserved for wild card qualifiers.
CHAN 2024 initially slated between the 1st and 28th of February 2025, has been postponed to August to allow for the host nations to put the infrastructure in perfect condition.