The Super Eagles could not lit up the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). They struggled to beat Burundi and Guinea, got disgraced by Madagascar before the knockout victories against Cameroon and South Africa. Yet, in all of their shortcomings, they got to the semi-finals where they only lost in small margins. 

So there they were, among the last four teams remaining in the competition. With everything that had gone wrong with the Super Eagles in Egypt, it was still impressive that they battled hard to take a place among the best. 

Algeria and Senegal got through to the final, teams who were unarguably better than Nigeria. So with the best two teams in Africa confirmed, there was still one thing to fight for. Third place. 

Gernot Rohr’s main worry ahead of the third-place match against Tunisia was how to motivate the boys. He went with his strongest team with only two changes to the starting X that lost to Algeria. Ola Aina came in for the suspended Chidozie Awaziem while Francis Uzoho got his first game of AFCON 2019 in place of Daniel Akpeyi who got the blame for Algeria’s last-minute goal in the semi-finals. 

It took only three minutes for the Super Eagles to score what turned out to be the only goal of the game. 

It started with a move on the left, Jamilu Collins overlapped to beat a defender before turning in a cross which the Tunisian defence failed to clear. Moez Ben Cherifia spilled the ball which then hit his teammate Yassine Mariah and Odion Ighalo was they to pounce and score. 

That was his fifth goal of the tournament and if Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez fail to score twice in the final on Friday, July 19, Ighalo will finish as the tournament’s highest goalscorer. This is redemption for him. 

Just a year ago, he considered quitting the national team after an intense backlash for missing two chances against Argentina in the 2018 FIFA World Cup where Nigeria failed to progress from the group stage. He has bounced back remarkably, he finished as the highest goalscorer in the qualifiers for AFCON 2019 and is on the verge of doing the same in the tournament proper. 

Maybe he would have added another goal in the game, but he pulled his hamstring in the 46th minute and was replaced by Victor Osimhen. 

Nothing else of note happened for the rest of the game as both teams played out the minutes. Tunisia did dominate the rest of the game both in terms of possession and chances created. 

Taha Khensisi would have scored for Tunisia in the eighth-minute but Kenneth Omeruo did well to block him. Ferjani Sassi came close for the Cartage Eagles in the 14th minute but his effort went wide. 

Tunisia remained in control in the second half although the Super Eagles, especially through Samuel Chukwueze, did look dangerous in attack. 

Chukwueze was taken off in the 90th minute for Samuel Kalu who also caused some problems for the Tunisians with two brilliant freekicks which were saved by Cherifia. 

In the end, the Super Eagles held on to their lead to take the bronze medal and bragging rights as the third-best team in Africa.