{"id":881144,"date":"2025-12-28T00:19:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T06:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/28\/its-not-going-to-happen-super-eagles-skipper-ndidi-talks-tough-ahead-of-tunisia-clash\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T00:19:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T06:19:27","slug":"its-not-going-to-happen-super-eagles-skipper-ndidi-talks-tough-ahead-of-tunisia-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/28\/its-not-going-to-happen-super-eagles-skipper-ndidi-talks-tough-ahead-of-tunisia-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen\u201d \u2013 Super Eagles skipper Ndidi talks tough ahead of Tunisia clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer <\/p>\n

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\"Soccer<\/p>\n

Nigeria and Leicester City star Wilfred Ndidi. Photo by IMAGO <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Super Eagles<\/a> captain Wilfred Ndidi has insisted Nigeria are fully prepared to ensure there is no repeat of their painful defeat to Tunisia as both sides prepare to clash at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations<\/a> in Morocco, Soccernet.ng reports<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Nigeria face Tunisia<\/a> on Saturday night in F\u00e8s in what is shaping up to be a decisive Group C encounter, with both teams arriving on the back of opening-day victories. The Super Eagles edged Tanzania 2-1 in their first match, while Tunisia were more convincing, recording a 3-1 win over Uganda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those results have left the two sides level on three points at the top of the group, with Tunisia holding a slight advantage on goal difference. A win for either team will guarantee automatic qualification to the knockout stages of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\"Soccer
Super Eagles stars: Iheanacho, Ndidi, Iwobi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet beyond the mathematics, history looms large. Tunisia hold a narrow head-to-head edge over Nigeria<\/a>, having won seven of their 21 meetings, compared to six victories for the Super Eagles. More significantly, their most recent meeting, at the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon, still stings deeply in the Nigerian camp.<\/p>\n

Nigeria entered that round-of-16 tie as overwhelming favourites, having won all three group matches, including a famous 1-0 victory over Egypt. Tunisia, by contrast, barely scraped through as one of the tournament\u2019s best third-placed teams. Despite that, it was Tunisia who advanced, courtesy of a 1-0 win sealed by Youssef Msakni.<\/p>\n

That defeat, compounded by Alex Iwobi<\/a>\u2019s first-half red card, remains a painful memory, one Ndidi admits is still discussed within the squad.<\/p>\n

\"Soccer
Super Eagles star Wilfred Ndidi. Photo by IMAGO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Get Our Sports News First \u2013 Join Our WhatsApp Channel Now!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soccer Ndidi: \u201cWe actually spoke of it\u201d<\/h2>\n

Speaking at Friday\u2019s pre-match press conference monitored by Soccernet.ng<\/strong>, Ndidi made it clear that the Super Eagles have not forgotten Cameroon but are determined not to be haunted by it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe guys are really prepared, we don\u2019t want to think about what happened (previous clash), we just want to face this one because definitely it\u2019s a new team with good players, good group,\u201d Ndidi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about it (defeat to Tunisia at 2021 AFCON), we actually spoke of it and hopefully it is not going to happen the second time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Soccer
Super Eagles star Wilfred Ndidi. Photo by IMAGO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The former Leicester City midfielder also dismissed suggestions that Nigeria are under pressure to win the tournament following their failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s no pressure on us, no pressure at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t qualify for the World Cup but we are actually ready for this tournament, it\u2019s just like another opportunity to correct the wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys are ready, the team is ready for this tournament. It was painful that we didn\u2019t qualify for the World Cup and we are ready for this to achieve something.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Saturday\u2019s match will be played at the F\u00e8s Stadium in F\u00e8s, Morocco, with kick-off scheduled for 9pm local time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"<!--Imhonlamhen Eronmhonsele” src=”https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/app\/uploads\/2024\/12\/DSC_0327-copy-150×150.jpg” height=”80″ width=”80″>\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tImhonlamhen Eronmhonsele\t\t\t\t<\/a>
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\n\t\t\t\tA lifelong fan of Arsenal and the Super Eagles, Imhonlamhen is a football writer and editor at Soccernet.ng, where his journey as a journalist began more than six years ago. Since then, he has helped shape the platform\u2019s editorial voice and guided it toward some of its proudest milestones. <\/p>\n

With a background in Engineering and further training in journalism and digital media, Imhons brings both precision and passion to his storytelling. His love for football runs deep, but he also follows boxing, chess, and athletics with equal curiosity.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>Imhonlamhen Eronmhonsele<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer Nigeria and Leicester City star Wilfred Ndidi. Photo by IMAGO Super Eagles captain Wilfred Ndidi has insisted Nigeria are fully prepared to ensure there is no repeat of their painful defeat to Tunisia as both sides prepare to clash at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, Soccernet.ng reports. Nigeria face Tunisia on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":881145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[903,29038,2005],"tags":[6972,5517],"class_list":{"0":"post-881144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-going","8":"category-its","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-going","11":"tag-its"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881144","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=881144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}