By Daily Sports on January 23, 2022

PREVIEW By Victor Enyinnaya 

As the round of 16 matches of the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) football summit in Cameroon continues, the match between Nigeria and Tunisia scheduled for this Sunday night, January 23, 2022, has taken the shine off all other games due to the pedigree of both countries in the round leather sport.

The tension has reached a feverish height among fans, bookmakers and football analysts who are divided along the lines. It is one game that has dwarfed all others and one hopes that it would live up to its billing. Nigeria must not give the North Africans any breathing space in the now-or-never game kicking off at 8pm Nigerian time.

Though the match is anticipated to be a choking one for both countries, the one applies quicksilver-like strategy would carry the day. It will be crunchy and would also witness less chances and little space for each other to operate, so more of imaginativeness by the Austin Eguavoen-led Nigerian coaching crew would matter a lot in this make-or-break encounter of wits and brawn.

Bookmakers, fans and experts have been divided as the ground is so slippery as to where the pendulum would swing as both teams seek a quarter-final berth.

No doubt, the game will be highly technical and tactical in every sense of the word if the anticipation of fans, bookmakers and analysts is anything to rely upon.

The match will be a very difficult one. The talk of the town game that has been trending heavily on the social media no doubt would get considerable attention around the world.

It is an obvious titanic battle to watch and one believes that both coaches would give space for the game to flow. The truth is that both teams will go all out for a pound of flesh as there will be no tomorrow after today’s encounter. A winner must emerge and the loser goes home.

Already Nigeria’s interim coach Eguavoen has emphatically said that he would take today’s game as final, and that shows the mood of the game in the Nigerian context. The former international spoke the minds of Nigerians that are eager to go past this stage.

Obviously, Eguavoen would strictly instruct his boys to shoot on sight, attack from all angles and get the needed goals to advance. From Eguavoen’s declaration, it is clear that Super Eagles lads will fire from all cylinders to get the tough going as soon as the referee signals the commencement of proceedings.

One hopes also that Eguavoen would employ superior match plan that would stampede the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia. Such step would be the beginning of a better game and one also prayers that the boys are as fit as fiddle and come with bold statement as was the case against Egypt in the group game.

However, as the Nigerians are preparing earnestly, so also the North Africans are no leaving any stone unturned to get past the three-time winners of Africa’s most cherished football tournament. It would be recalled that the Carthage Eagles won the AFCON once in 2004 and not superior to the Super Eagles as far as this tournament is concerned.

It won’t be a tea party as Tunisia’s head coach, Mondher Kebaier, talking tough insisting, that his country would qualify for the quarter-final, turning Nigeria back despite the giant West African country’s huge and sterling five-star performance in the group stage of the championship.

He was quoted to have acknowledged that Nigeria is tough and strong but quickly added that Tunisia is also a tough and strong side – despite the fact that Tunisia qualified as best loser from Group F. He justified his optimism on the fact that the deadly player in Carthage Eagles line-up Wahbi Khazri would do the yeoman’s job as he has been doing for his team.

Stade Omni Sports Rounde Adjia Stadium, Garoua, Cameroon, is hosting the big match.

Feelers from the Super Eagles’ camp in Garoua indicate that the spirit as high, and the players focused, concentrated, roaring to deal with their Carthage Eagles.

No doubt, the dice is cast; the fittest and more vigilant would claim victory over the other.

Fly, Eagles, Fly, Super Eagles!!          

•PHOTO: Super Eagles

Source Daily Sports

Posted January 23, 2022

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