Tremendous Eagles Defender, Kenneth Omueruo has admitted that they count on a tricky check towards Ivory Coast when each side face one another within the second leg of their Africa Cup of Nations Group A match, PUNCH Sports activities Further studies.
The Eagles and the Elephants will meet for the fifth time on Thursday throughout the AFCON – which will likely be broadcast stay in Nigeria by StarTimes – on the Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara in Ebimpe, Abidjan.
A win for the hosts, who at the moment prime the group with three factors after their 2-0 victory over Guinea-Bissau of their opening match, will assure them a spot within the spherical of 16 and spell attainable doom for Nigeria, who’ve a 1 -0 performed. 1 with Equatorial Guinea on Monday.
Nevertheless, the earlier six conferences between the 2 international locations have been all the time powerful: Nigeria gained 3 times and misplaced twice.
With little separating the 2 groups, Omeruo stated the Eagles will face a tricky problem on Thursday.
“We count on a troublesome match as a result of the Ivorians are the hosts and are additionally on the prime of our group. However we even have our ambitions and we imagine in ourselves,” stated Omeruo.
The primary assembly between Nigeria and Ivory Coast on the AFCON was in 1980 on the Nationwide Stadium, Surulere, with the match ending goalless.
Ten years later, the 2 international locations clashed once more within the group stage of AFCON, with the late Rashidi Yekini scoring the one objective of the match after simply three minutes in Annaba, Algeria.
In 1994, the 2 international locations met within the semi-finals on the Stade El Menzah in Tunisia. The match ended after a 2–2 attract a penalty shootout. Yekini scored the successful penalty for the Eagles, who later gained the event.
The Ivorians acquired their revenge in 2006 once they defeated Nigeria 1-0 within the semi-finals in Alexandria. Two years later, the Ivorians have been once more 1-0 winners after Salomon Kalou scored the one objective in a bunch match within the Ghanaian metropolis of Sekondi.
In 2013, on their method to a 3rd win, the Eagles defeated the Elephants 2-1 in a quarter-final draw on the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg.
