By Adeyinka Akintunde, Lagos on January 22, 2016

The Home-based Super Eagles of Nigeria will today play a cracker against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia, knowing that a win will seal a place in the quarter-finals of the on-going Championship of African Nations (CHAN) in Rwanda.

Nigeria had earlier defeated Niger Republic 4-1 in their first Group C match, and a repeat performance today, against the defending champions, will be great for the Sunday Oliseh team.

The Nigeria back four was not really tested by Niger, but will most likely be stretched by the North Africans, who won the 2011 CHAN in Sudan on their debut.

Abia Warriors central defender Austin Obaroakpo has served out a one-match ban after his bookings in the qualifiers against Burkina Faso, but it is left to be seen if Coach Sunday Oliseh will want to change the new pairing of Stephen Eze and Orji Kalu after the preferred Jamiu

Alimi underperformed against Niger.

The two other selection dilemma for Oliseh will be whether to start hat-trick hero Chisom Chikatara ahead of Tunde Adeniji, who was ineffective against the Mena save for his assist for Osas Okoro to open scoring in the second half against Nigeria’s next-door neigbours, and

also if the experienced campaigner Ikechukwu ‘Mosquito’ Ibenegbu should again start ahead of the younger Usman Mohammed, who replaced him and did far more in the 20 minutes he tasted action.

Against Guinea, the Tunisian defence was slow and ponderous, and it is expected that Nigeria will employ the speed and mobility of wide midfielders Okoro and Prince Aggreh to get behind them.

Oliseh has maintained his young team are up against a team from a better league than that of Nigeria.

“The Tunisians are the favourites because they have a great league and players,” he said.

“I am not saying that we are inferior to Tunisia; we have a good young squad and we are taking it game after game. I am not putting the players under undue pressure.”

Tunisia’s head coach, Hatem Missaoui, is full of confidence ahead of today’s game against Nigeria.

The Carthage Eagles drew their first game against Guinea on Monday and are seeking for a first victory at the tournament.

Missaoui said all his players are back from sickness and injuries that ravaged the team before their opener and vowed to cage the Nigerians who won their opener 4-1 against Niger and stop them from scoring goals.

“We are not looking forward to defending against a player in the Nigeria team, we have our tactics to stop the Super Eagles from scoring goals,” Missaoui said.

“What we are targeting is qualification to the next round of the competition and not just a victory against the Super Eagles.

“Nigeria have a good striker in [Chisom] Chikatara but we also have our own top scorer, Ahmed Akaichi, who scored the two goals against Guinea. He can get goals against the Super Eagles too.”    

A win for Tunisia will see them very close to the quarter-finals, needing only a draw against Niger Republic, in the last group match.

Nigeria vs Tunisia kicks off by 2pm (Nigeria Time) today.

•Photo shows the CHAN Eagles during a rendition of the National Anthem prior to a match.

Source Daily Sports

Posted January 22, 2016

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