Nigeria's Mikel Obi being congratulated by a team mate - Chris Obodo
Thirty-two years after the match that turned out to be the qualifying trump card result for the ticket to the World Cup Finals of Argentina ’78, when Tunisia had beaten Nigeria at the National Stadium in Lagos, the Carthage Eagles seem to be invoking the spirit of their delightful lone goal win of the time to tackle the Super Eagles at the Abuja National Stadium on Sunday.
The encounter, which is the star match of all the 20 matches to be played this weekend across Africa have seen the Tunisians shifted their camp to Souse, located on the Southern part of the country in readiness for the Abuja show down.
Interestingly, it was the same location, their legends goalkeeper Mohamed Attouga, Mohsen Labidi, Amor Jebali and the rest camped before they arrived Nigeria for their fatefully sweet Saturday of November 12, 1977.
Just as coach Amodu Shaibu has all his arsenals Super Eagles early on time for the crucial encounter, all the Tunisian defenders in the Souse camp according to one of the country’s national daily, Lapresse a medium owned by the ruling RCD party, have had all their players arriving early too for the camping.
“We have faith in our ability to hold Nigeria. Our international players are wary of and have a lot of respect for the Nigeria team but we are not afraid of them. So, this won’t stop us from the believe that we can get a useful result in Abuja just like our legends did many years ago in the World Cup qualifying match away in Lagos.”
The Super Eagles still trail Tunisia by two massive points and will need a win on Sunday to top the table for the first time in the final qualifying round of matches to the World Cup finals in South Africa next year.
With Nigeria still basking on the euphoria of their goalless outing at the Rade Stadium on the outskirt of Tunis last June, a win will serve the right tonic for the entire partisan crowd led by the Sports Minister, Sani Ndanusa at the 60, 000 stand of the magnificent Abuja National Stadium.
But if all Nigerians are optimistic that Nigeria will break the back line of Tunisia for the vital goals, the opponents’ defenders have this warning that the defence line will remain impregnable and hope for occasional counters!
Hamdi Kasraoui-“The main objective as we confront Nigeria is to ensure a positive result which can open the doors to qualification for us. This match will first be played with head. It must be managed in a very intelligent manner so as not to allow the opponent develop their game. The most important thing is confidence,”. Aymen Methlouthi-“One sole alternative is to stop Nigerian attack from taking off in the flight to South Africa.
This assemble in Souse is very useful for the team before the match in Abuja against our fellow Eagles. Our team is in high spirit more than we are before in this qualifying series and we are going to Nigeria on conquest mission. We know that the opponent is strong in its base but we have the means to succeed,”
Khaled Souissi- “The match is decisive and we must not leave anything to chance. We have only one goal to achieve and that is bringing back positive result from Abuja. We are ready to defend our chances when it comes,”
Ammar Jmel- “We are already solid in defence we are not going to offer any space to the Super Eagles and if we can achieve that they will become more frustrated before the home crowd and it may be an opportunity for us to strike like we did many years ago. We have perfectly their style of play and learnt some necessary lesson.
Nigeria has a very good attacking prowess any time they play at home but that will not scare us. Tunisia is solid and our aim is to be in solidarity and achieve a full proof defence and commit less errors,”.
Seif Ghezal- “No right to make mistake. The last camping in Abuja on Friday morning will shape up the joker we will produce on Sunday. A good application of tactical play in Sunday since we have studied Nigeria style of play and we know their strong and weak points. We must stop then from developing their game and if we gain that the pressure will be on them to top the group ahead of us,”.
Karim Hagui-“It is recommended to us be above board and commit less mistakes. The Souse camp was very useful. We know our opponents very well and ready to confront their best jokers since we know we must control our nerves to achieve result.
Radhouene Felhi- “Our next match on Sunday is the key for South Africa. The result is decisive and for that we have decided to succeed in our goal to reach the World Cup final again. The team is very strong more than before with great experience we must believe in our selves considering the fact that we are highly motivated.
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