Chippa United’s Stanley Nwabali was the hero for Nigeria as they kept up their run of third placed finishes at the Africa Cup of Nations, edging Egypt 4-2 on post-match penalties after a goalless draw in Saturday’s bronze medal match.

Here are talking points for the game.

Nwabali shootout prowess
The big frame of Nwabali stopped efforts from Egypt’s Premier League stars Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush to set up success in the shootout. They were two excellent stops, first with a strong hand, and the second with his feet. Egypt did put their next two past him but it was the Chippa ‘keeper elected man of the match for his heroics. It would have gone some way to making up for the disappointment of Nigeria’s penalty shootout defeat to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the World Cup playoff in November and again in Wednesday’ semi-final loss to hosts Morocco.

Merits of the match
The World Cup and the Cup of Nations continue with the third-place game but the European Championship long dispensed with it. Many ask what is the point? While there was a decent crowd at Stade Mohamed V to watch two of the continent’s heavyweights, there was little edge to the contest and a raft of changes from coaches who had claim beforehand they desperately wanted to win. Is there really any point besides giving television one more match to go show?

Osimhen and the golden boot
Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen was only one goal behind Brahim Diaz of Morocco in the race for the top scorer at the Cup of Nations finals and would have had a good opportunity on Saturday to catch him up and potentially over take him. But Nigeria’s star striker did not suit up, staying on the bench throughout the 90 minutes. He had looked to pick up a knock near the end of the semi-final against Morocco and with plenty of club football ahead with Galatasaray erred on the side of caution.

Goalless draw
The scoreless tie was only the third time in 33 third place play off matches that the bronze medal game ended goalless. The first was not that long ago in 2015 when hosts Equatorial Guinea were pipped by the Democratic Republic of Congo on post match penalties and then again at the last edition where South Africa edged the Leopards following a goalless stalemate in Abidjan.