Super Eagles midfielder, Joe Aribo, has criticized himself and his teammates, including Maduka Okoye, Alex Iwobi and Umar Sadiq, after their 1-0 defeat to Tunisia at the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, in Cameroon.
Aribo said the Super Eagles team that featured against Tunisia were not good enough to beat the North African side on Sunday.
The Rangers star insisted that the Super Eagles started the game really slow and allowed Tunisia to get a full hold of the game.
Nigeria was eliminated from the 2021 AFCON Round of 16 after losing to Tunisia at the Roumde Adjia Stadium on Sunday night.
Youssef Msakni scored the only goal of the match in the second half as Tunisia defeated Nigeria in the AFCON Round of 16 and qualified for the quarter-finals.
Alex Iwobi received a red card during the encounter as goalkeeper Maduka Okoye was guilty of allowing Msakni’s drive get past him.
Umar Sadiq had a glorious chance late to equalize, but the Almeria attacker dragged his shot wide with only Tunisia goalkeeper Ben Said to beat.
“I would not say we underestimated Tunisia, we always go into every game with respect for our opponents, so we have nothing to do with underestimating them. They had a good game plan, but we were not just good enough on the day,” Aribo said after the match.
“I think we started the game really slow, we allowed them to get a full hold of the game, we can’t take anything away from them, but we should have been better in the 90 minutes we just took too long to respond and when we started playing, we had the red card.”
“That is not how we wanted things to go and the way it is in camp now, no one is happy,” Aribo added.
