19th January, 2024
By Olanrewaju Akojede
Emmanuel Amuneke, 1994 African Cup of Nation winner/Atlanta 96 Olympics gold medalist has described Thursday’s Super Eagles win against the Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire in the ongoing AFCON 2023 as a “massive confidence booster” for the team.
Amuneke, who himself scored two goals in the 5th and 47th minute at the final of the 1994 AFCON between Nigeria and Zambia at Stade El Menzah, Tunis made the commendation in an interview.
Nigeria had at the second match of Group A defeated the host nation, Cote D’Ivoire 1-0 at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium, commonly known as the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpé with a 55th minutes penalty taken by the stand-in captain of the team, William Troost Ekong.
Amuneke, a former Barcelona FC of Spain winger, said that achieving a victory over a host nation was no mean feat.
According to him, I congratulate all Nigerians and the Super Eagles over this important win, knowing the rivalry between both countries at the home ground of Cote D’Ivoire.
“The win is a massive win of confidence to the Super Eagles. I like the mentality of the players who are aware that they need no one to tell them that the match against Cote D’Ivoire has lots of things involved.
“This is due to the rivalry that has existed between both countries over the years. I like the approach and I think that they were able to be more compact today.
“I also like the transition of the game especially from the defence to the attack, it is impressive that our players possess such character”.
Amuneke also said that the Cote D’Ivoire were not that fantastic coming to the AFCON 2024.
“The Ivorians were a bit slow in their build-up playing Nigeria, but not taking away the credit from the Nigerian players, they played well too.
“We don’t need a wide margin to beat a country like Cote D’Ivoire, we just needed an opportunity which we took through a clear penalty given.
“I also praise the ability of the captain, Ekong, who took the responsibility and scored.
“Going forward, the Super Eagles need to take the game one after the other, the team have drawn one and won one game, so they need to do more because AFCON have produced many interesting results; I really like the level of the competition,” he added. (NAN)