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The Super Eagles of Nigeria will be gunning for a spot in the round of 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) when they battle Tunisia on Saturday night.
The Eagles began their AFCON campaign in Morocco with a 2-1 victory over Tanzania earlier in the week, and are set for their second game tonight.
In the last Nations Cup meeting between Nigeria and Tunisia, the latter secured a 1-0 victory to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2021 edition.
Speaking ahead of the clash this weekend, team captain Wilfred Ndidi admitted that the boys had recently talked about the defeat, but are ready to turn things around.
“We are talking about it (defeat to Tunisia at 2021 AFCON), we actually spoke of it and hopefully it is not going to happen the second time,” he said.
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On missing the 2026 FIFA World Cup, he said: “We didn’t qualify for the World Cup but we are actually ready for this tournament, it’s just like another opportunity to correct the wrong.
“The guys are ready, the team is ready for this tournament. It was painful that we didn’t qualify for the World Cup and we are ready for this to achieve something.”
Tunisia defeated Uganda 3-1 in their opening game, and will be looking to deal a blow on Nigeria’s race, but coach Eric Chelle said he will be approaching the game differently.
“In my mind I have two options the first is maybe to let Tunisia have the ball or when we get the ball back we go direct or we continue with our philosophy,” Chelle said. “As we know Tunisia is a good team ams maybe we will change something.
“We had our training sessions after the first game and in the sessions we tried to add more intensity. We have a game against a great team so let’s go for this game.
“I have to prepare my players well as it’s not going to be easy. Tunisia is a great team like I said, they have a lot of good players with experience, lots of young players so they play well as a team.”
The game between both sides will kick off by 9:00p.m Nigeria time.
The post Matchday! Nigeria gun for AFCON knockout spot in Tunisia duel appeared first on Latest Nigeria News | Top Stories from Ripples Nigeria.
