The home-based Super Eagles play hosts Morocco in Sunday’s final LIVE at the Stade Mohammed V from 2

If Nigeria are to win the 2018 CHAN title this weekend, they would have done it against the odds as they face off against a 12-man home team backed by a boisterous 45000-strong partisan crowd.

The home-based Super Eagles play hosts Morocco in Sunday’s final LIVE at the Stade Mohammed V from 21:00.

The Atlas Lions, as the hosts are affectionately known, breezed their way through the group stages, thrashing Mauritania by four goals in the tournament’s opening fixture, beating Guinea 3-1 and ending the group stages campaign with a goalless draw against Sudan, a match they should have won after playmaker, Achraf Bencharki missed a penalty. They then beat Namibia 2-0 in the quarterfinals and needed extra-time to get past Libya 3-1 in the semi-finals. All these performances were in front of hostile sell-out crowds who played the role of 12th man and assisted in stifling their opponents at every turn.

Learning to manage the crowd will be half the battle won for Nigeria, who also had a relatively easy passage through the group stages, drawing with Rwanda before beating Libya and Equatorial Guinea. The knockout stages saw them needing extra-time to get past Angola 2-1 in the quarterfinals, and scrapping past Sudan 1-0 in the semis, in a match that had to make do with 10 men for more than 30 minutes after they had Ifaenyi Ifaenyi ejected in the 58th minute for a second caution.,