Reda Saleem (Dubai)
With the start of the African Nations Finals in Cameroon, speculation began to increase about the champion of the new version, although the majority of specialists, stars and fans had nominated the defending champion Algeria to win the cup, but the “Opta” website for sports statistics went in the opposite direction and nominated Nigeria and Morocco, behind it.
The British “Opta” website, which specializes in numbers and statistics, published a prediction for the 2021 African Cup of Nations champion and runner-up, based on the artificial intelligence model, which predicted that Nigeria would win the title and obtained 14.79% of the model nominations, followed by Morocco with 14.77%.
OPTA’s study was based on calculations based on the artificial intelligence model with statistics, relying on the numbers of the teams and some statistics related to their respective journeys within the tournament and the way to the final match. It was also based on the fact that Nigeria and Morocco did not lose during the tournament qualifiers.
The “artificial intelligence” expected that the Egyptian team, the record holder with 7 titles, would occupy the third place, while the study placed the Algerian team, the defending champion, far in sixth place, and its runner-up in the last edition, Senegal, in fourth place, and Cameroon, the tenth owner.
The predictions came as follows: Nigeria (14.79%), Morocco (14.77%), Egypt (12.93%), Senegal (12.23%), Côte d’Ivoire (8.27%), Algeria (8.15%), Tunisia (7.88%), Ghana (7.31%) and Mali (3.26%) and Cameroon (2.87%).
“Artificial intelligence” is moving in the opposite direction, according to what specialists and fans see as one of the most prominent candidates for the title due to its strong performance in the Arab Cup “Qatar 2021”, which crowned its title and competed with local players without professionals in Europe.
The teams of Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco made a strong performance with local players in the Arab Cup as well, both of which are competitors for the continental title. The study included 24 teams participating in the tournament, and the teams of Sudan, Comoros and Ethiopia came in the last three places, with a percentage of winning the title (0.07%).
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