{"id":373247,"date":"2025-12-28T14:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T14:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373247\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T14:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T14:55:08","slug":"nigeria-reach-afcon-last-16-despite-tunisia-fightback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373247\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria reach Afcon last 16 despite Tunisia fightback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Former <\/a>Former African Footballer of the Year Victor Osimhen (right) helped Nigeria into a 3-0 lead, but the<\/p>\n

Nigeria held off a late Tunisia fightback to reach the last 16 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Morocco.<\/p>\n

The Super Eagles led the Group C encounter in Fes 3-0 with 17 minutes remaining through goals from Victor Osimhen, Wilfred Ndidi and Ademola Lookman before Montassar Talbi’s header from a Hannibal Mejbri free-kick pulled one back for the North Africans.<\/p>\n

Tunisia were then given a late penalty, following a video assistant referee (VAR) review, for a handball by Bright Osayi-Samuel and Ali Abdi converted in the 87th minute to set up a frantic finale.<\/p>\n

The Carthage Eagles came close to a dramatic equaliser in stoppage time when captain Ferjani Sassi headed narrowly wide, and there was still time for Ismael Gharbi to bobble a volley past the post.<\/p>\n

Victory means three-time Afcon winners Nigeria move on to six points and are guaranteed top spot in Group C with a game to spare, and will face a third-placed side from Group A, B or F in the next round.<\/p>\n

Tunisia remain on three points with Uganda and Tanzania on one point apiece after the East African rivals drew 1-1 earlier on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Super Eagles remain in Fes to play Uganda on Tuesday (16:00 GMT), with Tunisia returning to Rabat to face Tanzania at the same time.<\/p>\n

Nigeria, Afcon runners-up in 2023, join Egypt as the second side through to the knockout stage, but both coach Eric Chelle and their supporters will feel relieved after what looked set to be a comfortable last quarter of an hour turned into a nervy finish.<\/p>\n

Both sides had won their opener in Morocco, with Tunisia cruising past Uganda and Nigeria edging past the Tanzanians in a hard-fought encounter.<\/p>\n

Osimhen had a goal ruled out for offside before the Super Eagles striker opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time, expertly guiding a header between two Tunisian defenders and into the bottom-right corner from Lookman’s inviting left-wing cross.<\/p>\n

The Super Eagles doubled their advantage early in the second half, as Ndidi picked a good time to score his first international goal when he rose highest to power home a header from Lookman’s corner.<\/p>\n

Osimhen teed up former England youth international Lookman for the third, but Talbi steered his header past Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali to reduce the deficit.<\/p>\n

Tunisia were handed a lifeline when a looping cross dropped onto the forearm of Osayi-Samuel, and Malian referee Boubou Traore awarded a spot-kick after being sent to his pitchside monitor by VAR.<\/p>\n

Abdi smashed home, but the 2004 champions ultimately fell short of a stirring comeback.<\/p>\n

Tunisia remain well placed to join the West Africans in the next round, with a draw against Tanzania enough to progress – and their manager Sami Trabelsi will be keen to avoid a repeat of the 2013 Afcon, when a group-stage exit ultimately led to his resignation as coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former African Footballer of the Year Victor Osimhen (right) helped Nigeria into a 3-0 lead, but the Nigeria…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-373247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}