Nigeria’s quest for a fourth Africa Cup of Nations title was halted on Sunday evening at the Roumde Adjia stadium in Garoua, Cameroon’s as the Super Eagles lost 1-0 to Tunisia in the second round – of- 16 game of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Prior to the AFCON, Nigeria were understandably not among the bookmakers’ favourites for the trophy ostensibly due to the not- so – convincing performance in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers even though they made it to the playoff stages.
However, the opinions about the team changed after their perfect winning run in the group stage of the AFCON where the team played with the confidence never seen in recent times.
The game against Tunisia was a very different experience for interim coach Austin Eguavoen and his team. They were outwitted and outfoxed by a more technical Tunisian side who evidently did their scouting job on the Eagles and knew the Eagles’ strong and weak points.
Before getting to the meat of it all, first the Tunisians’ claim that 12 of their playing staff and coaching crew were out with Coronavirus was doubtful.
The Tunisian head coach was evidently not on the bench but star player Wabhi Khazri and a couple of others ‘miraculously’ had their positive cases turned negative when they were expected to isolate for at least seven to 10 days.
That was perhaps a ploy to have the Eagles underrate them which eventually came at a cost.
Austin Eguavoen ought to have rung some changes and make some players become adept at some other positions as going with the regular players that shone against Egypt and Sudan would be predictable. He did not do that.
The Nigerian side and their opponents sized each other up on the first half in what was a dour 45 minutes. Had the team asserted themselves early on, that might have put some fears in the Tunisians.
To achieve that though, Eguavoen should have deployed a different formation and personel. Kelechi Nwakali, Chidera Ejuke and Ahmed Musa should have started or come on early in the second half.
Nwakali is blessed with defence-splitting passes, Ejuke is twinkle-toed and having them at least early in the second half could have helped the team add more creativity to their game.
Austin Eguavoen admitted after the game that the north Africans defended in their numbers and having 10 men behind the ball was a herculean task. That is where the creative players on the bench would have been of great value.
Sadiq Umar redeemed himself somewhat after the criticisms that he faced throughout the duration of Nigeria’s campaign for his wastefulness in front of goal.
Although the UD Almeria striker missed two good chances to restore parity, he was lively in his cameo appearance on Sunday. It will be interesting to see the roll call of support strikers queueing up behind Victor Osimhen when the World Cup playoffs come around.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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