Tunisia – Nigeria: Press conference and post-match statements

A wonderful qualification was created against Nigeria for the quarter-finals, these are the actual challenges delivered by the Tunisians who were struck by 8 cases of Covid and 2 suspended players as well as their coach, who remained isolated.

On this qualification,  assistant coach Jalel Kadri said: “The national team has excelled despite the immense technical capacities of the Eagles, particularly from a tactical point of view. Today’s heroic performance on the pitch against the Nigerian team came as a reaction to all the criticism directed at the technical staff, who represent Tunisian coaching in general.”

• Naïm Sliti: “We felt this qualification. All the circumstances were against us and we want to go all the way. It was for us this qualification. Despite bad circumstances, we demonstrated that we are powerful. The goal is identical, go all the way. We are here Tunisia”.
• Issam Jebali: “For our nation, we played like men, it’s correct we went through hard things, but we did it for our country”.
• Seifeddine Jaziri: “If there is a conflict (last night), let them say names, those who create it remind me of the snipers of January 14. We reacted to criticism, we gave our all for our country and our selection. As far as arguing goes, Hannibal is like my little brother and we’re a tight-knit group.”
• Anis Ben Slimane: “After the match against Gambia, I had faith in myself, in my teammates, in the staff, we believed in it until the ending and did not even think that we were going to go home today. We desired to demonstrate that we did not come to laugh”.
• Aïssa Laïdouni: “You have to stay humble, you must never leave defeatist, the most difficult part is yet to come, we responded on the ground and we desired to make people proud and gave everything for the nation. My individual performance is secondary, the collective comes first”.

For his part, Nigeria coach Augustine Eguavoen talked at the conference: “There were issues with speed in the passes. We attempted to change tactics, but it didn’t work. Our game didn’t come together, and the competitor played hard on us. They were all really playing defence.” He adds: “We did not underrate our opponents. We tried to move on, but it didn’t work out.”