advancing from the group stage three times (1994, 1998 and 2014), getting knocked out in the round of 16 all three times, while Cameroon has qualified seven times, advancing from the group stage only once (1990) though they made it to the quarter-finals in that edition. Other African nations There is also a number of competitive matches with Algeria dating back to the 1970s. The two sides met twice in the African Cup of Nations finals, with each nation splitting the win totals. It was a 1–1 draw in Algeria on 8 October 1993 that enabled Nigeria to claim its first World Cup berth in the 1994 edition of the tournament. Nigeria since then had an undefeated streak to Algeria, until the semi-finals of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations when Algeria prevailed over Nigeria. Nigeria's western neighbour, Benin, has played competitive matches with the team since the period of European colonisation when they were known as Dahomey. But with only two wins and two draws to Benin's credit against Nigeria's fourteen wins, and with the sides having only met six times since 1980, Benin remains a lightly regarded opponent. Argentina In five of its first six World Cup appearances, Nigeria was drawn in the group stage with three-time champion Argentina and is regarded by many fans as having fairly acquitted themselves against the footballing giant. The fixture is the most common in the competition's history involving an African nation. All five matches have been won by Argentina, but all were by a one-goal margin (2–1 in 1994, 1–0 in 2002, 1–0 in 2010, 3–2 in 2014 and 2–1 in 2018) and have been tightly contested. To date Nigeria has recorded two wins against Argentina's six, with the victories occurring during friendly matches. Nigeria came close to defeating Argentina in their first meeting, during which they held a lead for some minutes of the match. This was followed by a Confederations Cup match in 1995 which saw Nigeria hold the South Americans to a 0–0 draw. Below full international level, their Olympic teams also faced off in the gold medal match in 1996 (3–2 to Nigeria), and 2008 (1–0 to Argentina). The final of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship was also played between them; both Argentina goals in their 2–1 win were scored by Lionel Messi, who would go on to find the net for the senior team in