Now in the last chance saloon to secure a place in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, Niger will do battle against Sudan at Stade de Kegue on Thursday in the penultimate round of qualifying matches.
While the hosts need a victory to keep their continental dreams alive, the visitors head to Lome knowing that a point could be enough to secure safe passage into the group stages of Africa's biggest football showpiece.
Match preview
© Imago
In keeping with their dismal AFCON qualification journey so far, Niger fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat against Angola when the teams went head-to-head at the Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca on October 15.
Despite dominating the ball possession, Ezzaki Badou's men failed to muster a single shot on target over the course of the 90 minutes and were unable to find a reply to Zini's early strike within the opening 60 seconds.
That was a second straight defeat for the Dama Gazelle and a third in four matches to leave them bottom of Group F with one point, six points adrift of their next opponents, who are on pace to qualify as runners-up alongside current leaders Angola.
Niger could really do with improvements at both ends of the pitch having failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their seven outings since the turn of the year, while only managing to find the back of the net on three occasions.
Ahead of their final qualifier against Ghana four days later, Thursday's visitors will need to pick themselves up, knowing that anything less than all three points here would spell the end of their AFCON ambitions.
After missing the most recent edition in Ivory Coast, Sudan kicked off their quest to participate in the 2025 AFCON with a 1-0 triumph over Niger on September 4 before suffering a 2-1 loss to Angola in their subsequent involvement.
Akwasi Appiah's men held Ghana to a goalless draw in matchday three on October 10, after which they claimed arguably their most impressive result in the second of two straight clashes against the Black Stars.
Off the back of a relatively uneventful opening 45 minutes, quickfire goals from Ahmed Al-Tash and Mohamed Abdel Raman fired the Falcons of Jediane to a first win over their West African counterparts since 2020.
A tally of seven points from four matches means that Sudan are within touching distance of guaranteeing themselves a place in next year's continental event in Morocco heading into Thursday's encounter.
However, a defeat could open the door for Ghana to snatch second place in Group F on the final day, and it is highly imperative that Sudan keep their foot on the gas given their struggles away from home, where they have lost eight of the last 11 games.
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Team News
Adamou Abraham was hauled off with an injury scare in the first half of South Sudan's defeat to Niger, but the defender is expected to be fit enough to feature here.
As he seeks a solution to his side's attacking woes, Ezzaki Badou could contemplate making some changes up front with the likes of Yacouba Issa pushing for a starting berth.
Mohamed Abdel Raman's strike against Ghana was his 21st goal for Sudan, leaving him six shy of Nasr El-Din Abbas at the top of the all-time scoring charts.
Abuaagla Abdalla and Ramadan Agab are closing in on their 60th cap for the away side which would see them join only nine players in history to have reached this milestone.
Niger possible starting lineup:
Hainikoye; Yakubu, Garba, Boueye, Abdourahmane, Abraham; Oumarou, Moussa, Badamassi; Soumana, Sosah
Sudan possible starting lineup:
Mustafa; Kuku, Abdalla, Ahmed, Khidir; Eisa, Bakhit, Al-Tash; Raman, Agab, Yousif
We say: Niger 0-1 Sudan
Given Niger's struggles in front of goal, Sudan will fancy their chances of keeping their hosts at bay, having recorded clean sheets in three of their four AFCON qualifiers.
We can see the visitors just about doing enough to come away with maximum points in the end.
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Adepoju Marvellous
