Nottingham Forest handed blow as £32m trio out of Newcastle United clash

Nottingham Forest will be without Willy Boly, Ibrahim Sangare and Ola Aina on Saturday with all three players set to take part in the final of the African Cup of Nations. Boly and Sangare will represent host nation Cote D’Ivoire in the final whilst Aina will face-off against them in the colours of Nigeria.

A goal from former West Ham striker Sebastien Haller secured the host nation a 1-0 win over DR Congo in the semi-final to book their place in Saturday’s final. Nigeria, meanwhile, won in dramatic fashion over South Africa.

The Super Eagles thought they had secured a 2-0 win when Victor Osimhen struck in the ding stages of the match, however, his goal was chalked off by VAR which adjudged that there had been a foul committed in the Nigeria penalty area before the swift counter-attack that led to Osimhen’s goal. South Africa were thus awarded a penalty, which was duly converted, to send the game into extra-time.

A goalless 30 minutes meant both teams would face the dreaded penalty shootout. Nigeria would ultimately win 4-2 with their only missed spot-kick coming from Aina. The AFCON final will take place at 8pm (GMT) on Sunday 11 February at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium.

Newcastle United had just one representative at the tournament with Yankuba Minteh called up to represent Gambia. Minteh’s tournament ended at the group stage after his nation lost all three group games. Former Magpies manager Chris Hughton took charge of Ghana during the tournament, but has since left that role after failing to guide them out of the group stage.