SUPER Eagles head coach Austin Eguavoen has highlighted Tunisia’s strengths as he works on how to stop them on Sunday.
Eguavoen’s side face the Carthage Eagles in the round of 16 of the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Garoua on Sunday night, with a spot in the quarter-finals at stake.
Although Tunisia have struggled in Cameroon, losing to both Equatorial Guinea and newcomers Gambia before squeezing through as one of the best third-placed teams, Eguavoen still rates them highly.
“Congratulations to our team. We’ve qualified and it’s clear we’ll be playing Tunisia, which is another strong North African team,” the former Super Eagles captain told the team’s media department in Garoua on Friday.
“We’ll continue to work hard like we’ve always done. Same approach, same determination, tactics may differ a little bit.
“We’re ready. Yesterday we did a bit of recovery training.”
Eguavoen has been paying close attention to the Tunisians and he feels they are still a strong side his team must not treat with kids’ gloves.
Although the Super Eagles cruised through the group stage with three wins in three games, Eguavoen insists they must ‘get it right’ against Tunisia or face an early trip back home.
“Today we start on how we’ll approach the game against Tunisia,” he added.
“They’ve had ups and downs, their first game ended in dramatic fashion. They’ve lost two penalties in two games as well, and yesterday they lost narrowly towards the end of the game.
“So, for them having qualified for the knockout stage is a different ball game.
“You know what the knockout stage is. At the round of 16 if you don’t get it right you’re out. If you get it right, you’re through to the quarter-finals.”
The 1994 AFCON champion believes he and his crew will find solutions to the sometimes inconsistent but still top-level Tunisian side.
“It’s going to be a very different game,” Eguavoen noted.
“It’s a good team, very good technically. They’re fast as well, a typical North African team.
“We’ll see how to find a way we can counter them and make sure we come out on top at the end of the day.”
Incidentally, Eguavoen was also Super Eagles head coach at the 2006 AFCON in Egypt when they defeated Tunisia on penalties after their quarter-final clash ended 1-1 in extra time.
The Super Eagles also defeated Tunisia at the last AFCON in Egypt, winning the third-place playoff 1-0 through Odion Ighalo’s goal.
