| Goals | Goals |
|---|---|
| 9. Cheik Tiote (49’) | 9. Emmanuel Emenike (41’) |
| 19. Sunday Mba (76’) |
- Match
Preview - Play by
Play - Match
Report - Rate
The Team - Man of
Match - Match
Statistics - Match
Analysis - Match
Photos - Pick
The Team
Battle of the giants in Rustenburg
Ivoirian playmaker Yaya Touré
The Elephants dominated their Group D during the group phase, outclassing Togo and Tunisia before drawing with Algeria, while the Super Eagles started off their tournament with two draws against Burkina Faso and Zambia, before securing second place in their Group C with a victory over Ethiopia, 2-0.
Boosted by their experience and their numerous stars, Côte d’Ivoire are the predicted favourites against a relatively young Nigerian team, but their coach Sabri Lamouchi is approaching this quarter final extremely seriously.
“This is a crucial match. Nigeria are a great football nation. We will have to be highly determined and very rigorous.
“We have no room for error, especially because we are up against Nigeria and even the smallest error will cost us dearly,” warned the French-Tunisian technician on Friday in a press conference.
Without a single player injured or suspended, the former French international will have a plethora of options available to him for his choice of team to face the Nigerians.
“In the last match, we were lucky to be able to make a few changes thanks to our position on the table. So now we benefit from having the whole team available. There are no injuries,” assured Lamouchi.
In the Nigerian camp, despite a certain pessimism shown by some of their supporters and the media, there is a sense of calm.
“The atmosphere is good, the morale is good, everything is going very well,” assured a more relaxed than ever Stephen Keshi on Friday in a press conference.
And the Super Eagles are ready to take on the Ivoirian challenge.
“We just concentrate on ourselves at the moment, we will try to do our best, as it shall be. It is going to be a hot game, it won’t be an easy game. We are looking forward,” stated Victor Moses to MTNFootball.com on Thursday during their training session.
Stephen Keshi will be without his midfielder Fegor Ogude, due to suspension for this crucial clash.
These two nations have already met five times in the Africa Cup of Nations, with both having secured two victories and a draw between them.
But the Elephants won on the same score of 1-0 in their last two confrontations in this tournament, namely in the semi-final of the Afcon 2006 and during the group phase of the 2008 edition.
Keshi should please retain this team and polish their tactics for the next match. Remember nobody changes a winning team. Congratulations I predicted 2-1 and so it was. I thank God for the Coach, the team and Nigeria. No one gave the Super Eagles a chance, not even some unpatriotic Nigerians! But me, I saw it coming and even when CIV equalised, I still had faith that we would win, although frankly speaking I had thought it would be through penalty shootout.
We have finally thrashed Ivory Coast. Indeed, we are really the giant of Africa. The team has really improved. They played as a unit today.
Keshi has really shown his coaching prowess by sticking to Echiejile and Ambrose despite their below par performance in all the matches they have played. But, in today's match, they have upped their game and the team has blended the more generally. With more games, we will continue to get better and improve.
I must commend Keshi for Omeruo and Oboabona partnership in the heart of defence. They really caged the Ivorians. I give both of them kudos for their high degree of confidence and concentration. They will surely go places.
Sunday Mba is another player that will surely go places if he continues playing like he did today. I will also like to use this opportunity to tell Keshi to retain Onazi in the midfield in our matches. Onazi was really outstanding in both defense and offense. He really helped alot in pushing our attack. I rate him better than Ogude.
Finally, I give kudos to all our players. They are really outstanding. With more matches, the team will gel more and become very.
All those doubting Keshi should pls go and eat grass with eboue. Up eagles
{message}