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Tunisia ruin Nigeria’s title chase, beat Eagles 1-0

By Gowon Akpodonor, Garoua, Cameroun
24 January 2022   |   4:07 am
Tunisia yesterday in Garoua, Cameroun, exposed Nigeria’s tactical deficiency at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations, beating the Super Eagles 1-0 in their round of 16 encounter.

Tunisia’s players celebrate after winning the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2021 round of 16 football match between Nigeria and Tunisia at Stade Roumde Adjia in Garoua on January 23, 2022. Daniel BELOUMOU OLOMO / AFP

Tunisia yesterday in Garoua, Cameroun, exposed Nigeria’s tactical deficiency at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations, beating the Super Eagles 1-0 in their round of 16 encounter.

Nigeria won all their three games at the group stage of the competition, while Tunisia barely managed to qualify as one of the four best third placed teams at the end of the group stage. Such statistics deceived pundits into believing that the Super Eagles would run over the Carthage Eagles. But that was far from the reality.

After a first half dominated by the Eagles without any shot on target, Tunis came into the second half all guns blazing.

It took only a minute into the second period for the North Africans to take the lead, as Yusuf Msakni’s low drive in the 47th minute caught a badly positioned Maduka Okoye flapping the air.

Thereafter, the more tactically tuned Carthage Eagles took over the midfield and started dictating the game.

Soon, the mountain became too high for Nigeria to scale when substitute Alex Iwobi was sent off for rough play barely seven minutes after entering the fray.

If playing with 11 men against the more composed Tunisia was a difficult task, it became Herculean for the Eagles as the North Africans started knocking the ball all over the field.

Although Nigeria added the urgency that was missing in their game midway into the second half, poor marksmanship robbed them of the chance of getting even.

Coach Augustine Eguavoen, who seemed to be swallowed by the enormity of the task presented by Tunisia, brought in Ahmed Musa, Peter Olayinka and Sidiq Umar in search of the game changer.

After those changes, the game changed in favour of Nigeria, but then masterful Tunisians, who are versed in the art of time wasting, contained whatever Nigeria threw at them.

Nigeria could have had the equaliser if Umar was a bit more composed in front of goal, but he wasted all the chances that fell his way.

The Almeria of Spain striker wasted what looked like a sure goal in the 77th minute when he had the goalkeeper at his mercy.

Yesterday’s game showed that Nigeria still have a big task ahead of them if they must beat Ghana to the FIFA World Cup ticket in the qualifiers slated for match.

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