{"id":844976,"date":"2025-05-01T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/nigeria-vs-tunisia-lessons-flying-eagles-must-learn-from-past-north-african-encounters\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:12:23","slug":"nigeria-vs-tunisia-lessons-flying-eagles-must-learn-from-past-north-african-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/nigeria-vs-tunisia-lessons-flying-eagles-must-learn-from-past-north-african-encounters\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria vs Tunisia: Lessons Flying Eagles must learn from past North African encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The Flying Eagles of Nigeria are set to take on Tunisia in their AFCON U-20 Group B opener in Egypt tomorrow evening, <a href=\"https:\/\/Soccernet.ng\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Soccernet.ng<\/a> reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Aliyu Zubairu\u2019s team were drawn into the same group as Morocco, Tunisia and Kenya, and they\u2019ll be hoping to garner as many points as possible to qualify for the knockout stages.<\/p>\n<p>The Carthage Eagles have made the semi-finals of the past two AFCON U-20 tournaments, while the Flying Eagles have won the competition a record seven times. Additionally, they\u2019re also two-time runners-up of the FIFA U-20 World Cup.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_149636\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-149636\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/imago1053083544-1024x683.jpg\" alt width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  ><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-149636\">LOME, TOGO \u2013 OCTOBER 27: Kparobo Arierhi of Nigeria and Almoustapha Dille Illiassou of Niger during the WAFU B-U-20 Championship: match between Nigeria and Niger at Stade Kegue. [Photo Credit\/ Imago].<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>Get Our Sports News First \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VagMHLcA89MZvw0Btc21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Join Our WhatsApp Channel Now!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/2025\/04\/u-20-afcon-tunisian-nigeria.html\">U-20 AFCON: Nigeria vs Tunisia- Five Tunisian players who can stop Nigeria<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/2025\/04\/flying-eagles-u20-afcon.html\">Number 9 for Arierhi, 10 for Ayuma as Flying Eagles squad numbers revealed ahead of U20 AFCON clash with Tunisia<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/2025\/04\/delap-osimhen-crouch-united.html\">Liam Delap or Victor Osimhen: Peter Crouch picks his preferred striker for Manchester United<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_158100\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-158100\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/app\/uploads\/2025\/04\/imago1053159147-1024x683.jpg\" alt width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  ><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-158100\">Nathaniel Nwosu, Nigeria, arrival for the game between Cote D Ivoire vs Nigeria at the WAFU-B U20 Qualifiers, Lome, Togo. [Photo Credit\/ Imago].<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While the Flying Eagles did not qualify for the AFCON U-20 tournament in 2021, they were third in 2023. Tunisia and Nigeria have met five times previously, with the record Champions claiming three wins and a draw.<\/p>\n<p>In this piece, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/\">Soccernet.ng<\/a><\/strong> highlights lessons the Flying Eagles can learn from their previous games against the Tunisian opponents.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Nigeria have scored in every game against Tunisia<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While history favours Zubairu\u2019s side, scoring first will be a huge boost for the team if they\u2019re to secure three points tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, Tunisia have conceded at least three goals in each of their last three games in the tournament. Plus, they\u2019re winless in their last nine games against West African teams (D6 L3), with their last win coming against Guinea in 1987.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. The Flying Eagles have to be defensively solid<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The rivalry between both sides stretches back to 1981 when Nigeria defeated Tunisia over two legs 5-4 on aggregate.<\/p>\n<p>The next meetings between the teams came in 1985 in the final over two legs. The first with Tunisia as hosts ended 1-1 before Nigeria won the second leg 2-1 for a 3-2 aggregate victory. Their last meeting was in the third-place play-off in 2023 as Nigeria won the game 4-0.<\/p>\n<p>Their history predicts goals pour whenever both sides meet. So while they\u2019d love to attack, they also have to be wary of leaving spaces open at the back.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_149635\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-149635\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/imago1053160225-1024x1007.jpg\" alt width=\"1024\" height=\"1007\"  ><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-149635\">Kparobo Arierhi, Nigeria in action during the game between Cote D Ivoire vs Nigeria at the WAFU-B U20 Qualifiers, Lome, Togo. [Photo Credit\/ Imago].<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>3. The North African Curse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nigeria have qualified for the AFCON U-20 tournament 18 times, reaching the semi-final 16 times and have won the tournament seven times, exiting the group stage just two times. However, they\u2019ve never won the competition whenever it has been hosted on North African soil.<\/p>\n<p>The Flying Eagles have to be wary of this and should try to step up their game to break the jinx. However, Nigeria have won their opening game seven times, only losing twice, so history favours them.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><img alt=\"Soccer Adefolahan Guerreiro\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f64d35abfd960f4a5a400c4bb517f7f0be6c48b655560fbdd37e59d9fc9ca58?s=80&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g\"  height=\"80\" width=\"80\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\">\t\t<\/p>\n<div>\n<h3>\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/author\/guerreiro\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tAdefolahan Guerreiro\t\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tAdefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>With a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience.<\/p>\n<p>He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/2025\/04\/nigeria-tunisia-afcon-u20.html\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>Adefolahan Guerreiro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer The Flying Eagles of Nigeria are set to take on Tunisia in their AFCON U-20 Group B opener in Egypt tomorrow evening, Soccernet.ng reports. Aliyu Zubairu\u2019s team were drawn into the same group as Morocco, Tunisia and Kenya, and they\u2019ll be hoping to garner as many points as possible to qualify for the knockout [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":844977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27096,2005,77686],"tags":[15956,77685],"class_list":{"0":"post-844976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"category-soccer","9":"category-tunisia","10":"tag-nigeria","11":"tag-tunisia"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}