They came into the tournament as strong contenders having won the tournament a record seven times but they failed to reach the final of the 2023 U-20 AFCON in Egypt, thus, the hope of securing a record 8th title has been postponed until another edition.
The Nigerian Flying Eagles who started slowly but managed to reach the last four of this year’s edition of the U-20 AFCON in Egypt will file out against the young Cattage Eagles of Tunisia on Friday for the 3rd place and bronze medal match.
As the 17th edition of the ongoing U-20 AFCON wraps up, Nigeria and Tunisia, the semi-final losers will face each other at the Cairo Int’l stadium on Friday to determine the second runners-up of this year’s edition of the tournament, a match both teams wouldn’t want to lose for pride sake.
Nothing at stake but the bronze medal and pride.
Tunisia have reached the semi-finals twice, the first in 1985 losing to the Flying Eagles of Nigeria and the second was at the last edition in Mauritania where they lost to another West African country, Ghana.
The Carthage Eagles’ performance against West African opponents at this level have always been poor as they also lost this year’s semi-final match to Senegal, a West African country.
Having this at heart would be demoralizing for the Tunisia U-20 team, however, this is football, and history in most cases have no impact on the current form or the match to be played.
How Both Teams Have Faired At This Year’s Tournament
Tunisia, made it through the preliminary stages only after the final game against the young Chipolopolo of Zambia, as their fate were hanging in the result of the match between Gambia and Benin on match day 3.
But they were able to triumph over Zambia by two goals to one, their first victory of the tournament.
Tunisia ended up 2nd behind the Gambia in Group C with four points having lost their first match one-zero to the group leaders, Gambia, drawing 0-0 with Benin in the second match before defeating Zambia 2-1 in their last group game.
The Tunisians picked up the pieces, and reached the semi-final plus a ticket to the FIFA U-20 world cup in Indonesia, thanks to a scintillating performance against Congo in the quarter-final.
The Carthage Eagles overcame Congo 5-4 on penalties after the match extended to an extra time and a 3-3 draw after 120 minutes at the Cairo Int’l stadium.
But the Eagles of Cattage were overpowered by in-form Cubs of Teranga who run riots and defeated the Tunisians by three unreplied goals.
The defeat is the 2nd for the Tunisians in this tournament and the three-time semi-finalists will now face familiar foes, the Flying Eagles of Nigeria, for a chance to clinch the bronze medal.
It hasn’t been a smooth tournament for Nigeria’s Flying Eagles, as they were beating one-nil in their opening game against Senegal, but recovered quickly, beating the hosts Egypt 1-0 before thumping Moçambique 2-0 in their last group game.
The Eagles triumphed over Uganda in the quarter-final via an own goal but lost 0-1 to the Gambia in the semi-final played on Monday.
At this tournament, the Nigerians have been poor in front of goal and are lackadaisical in the midfield, they’ve scored four goals so far and conceded two. The four goals were scored in their victories against Egypt, Mozambique, and Uganda, while the two conceded occurred in the games lost to Senegal and Gambia.
This is a true reflection of the Eagles' attitude and approach to their games at this tournament, poor in attack, lackadaisical in the middle, and are average at the backline, but this in contrast to their 3rd place playoff opponents, Tunisia, who despite having conceded a total of eight goals, scored five, looks promising going forward.
Their ability to put two behind Zambia and three past Congo, a total of five goals in two matches shows what they can do in front of goal and that should worry their opponents, the Flying Eagles of Nigeria who have only scored just four goals in four matches.
Head To Head
Both teams' first meeting was at the semi-final of the 1985 edition with the Flying Eagles winning that contest.
In this tournament, Tunisia have won two matches, draw one, and lost two, while Nigeria have won three matches, and draw none but lost two.
The Flying Eagles are also the WAFU B champions prior to this tournament.
What To Expect:
We expect to see two sides who are hungry to play for pride and to prove doubters wrong.
Both teams according to their respective coaches have what it takes to go all the way.
Will the Flying Eagles remain ‘snail in shells’ and be carted away by the Cattage Eagles or with the Flying Eagles Soar while breaking the wings of their opponents.
It is the contest of the Eagles, which one of these will triumph after 90 or 120 minutes? You can leave your opinion in the comment section.
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