Afcon 2023: Iwobi is feeling assured but Musa foresees a tight game

Super Eagles midfielder, Alex Iwobi, believes Nigeria are favourites to win this year’s Africa Cup of Nations beginning with knocking out Cameroon on Saturday but his captain Ahmed Musa foresees a tight game against the Lions.

Nigeria will rekindle their Afcon rivalry with Cameroon when both countries clash in the last 16 on Saturday.

The Fulham star who has been one of the standout players in the Nigerian squad at the tournament called on his team-mates to simply prove their quality when they take on the Indomitable Lions as they close in on a fourth Afcon title.

The Eagles' three triumphs at the Afcon came in 1980, 1994, and 2013 and Iwobi remains confident of lifting the trophy at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe on February 11.

“Of course, I believe in us (to win the trophy),” Iwobi said ahead of the game.

“Because I feel we have one of the best teams, player for player, in Africa.

“We just have to prove it. All of us are very grounded. We know we’re going to need to work hard and be more prepared than the opposition regardless of the quality we have.”

The former Everton midfielder also added that the attitude and hunger shown by the reigning African Footballer of The Year, Victor Osimhen has been used as a source of motivation at the tournament despite his lack of goals.

Osimhen has had a hand in two of the three goals the Eagles scored in the group stage of the tournament. The Napoli striker drew the Eagles level with a thumping header three minutes after Equatorial Guinea took the lead in their opening game.

The goal was his 21st in 29 international appearances for Nigeria.

The 25-year-old also earned the three-time winners a penalty which Willian Troost-Ekong converted against Ivory Coast on match day two – his 30th game for Nigeria.

He said, “Everyone has the opinion that he’s a great striker and the reason why he’s such a great striker is because he’s hungry.

“I’ve seen him grow from a youngster. Without that hunger and passion for football, he wouldn’t be where he is now.

“It’s something we also use as inspiration. When we see our striker pressing and hungry to get goals, it gives us that motivation to do the same and go win the ball to create chances. So it’s not just his finishing but his attitude towards football.”

But Iwobi’s captain, Ahmed Musa, has admitted that Saturday’s against Cameroon will be a tough encounter.

The Eagles will aim to repeat their 2019 AFCON winning feat in Alexandria, Egypt when they notably came out on top edging the Indomitable Lions 3-2 at the same last-16 stage five years ago.

Musa who played the entire duration of that thrilling encounter said, “That game was a tough duel and brought out the best in us, especially when we went 1-2 down despite scoring first.

“In the dressing room, we told ourselves that we could not allow that to happen. We played for one another and we were happy to win at the end.

“Of course, we know the match on Saturday will be even tougher.

“The Cameroonians will be determined not to lose again, but we will give our very best and go for a win. We can do it again. We aspire to win the trophy and nothing has changed that.”

The Eagles have had the edge in past encounters with the Indomitable Lions.

Both teams have clashed in 17 competitive matches since their first encounter at the Kwame Nkrumah Cup on December 8, 1962, which Nigeria won 3-1.

Of those 17 matches, Cameroon won only four – three of these in the final matches of the Africa Cup of Nations in 1984, 1988, and 2000. The only other time Cameroon beat Nigeria in a competitive match was on August 27, 1989, when Francois Omam Biyick scored the only goal in Yaounde that eliminated Nigeria from the race to the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals in Italy.

Nigeria has won nine of the other 13 matches, including a 2-1 defeat of Cameroon in the bronze medal match of the 1992 Afcon; a 2-0 triumph in a 1990 World Cup qualifier in Ibadan; a 3-2 win in Yaounde in a 1970 World Cup qualifier; a 2-1 win in Monastir in a 2004 Afcon quarter-final; a 4-0 win in Uyo in a 2018 World Cup qualifier and; a 3-2 win in Alexandria in a 2019 Afcon round of 16 clash.