CAIRO – Super Eagles forward Alex Iwobi says the motivation to defeat Tunisia in Wednesday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations third-place match won’t be a problem regardless of whichever team Nigeria’s coach Gernot Rohr puts out at the Al Salam Stadium.
Both sides clash in the 8pm kick-off with the question of motivation hanging over both sets of players and their ability and willingness to shake off the disappointment of losing in the semifinals to go again in what is also known as “the losers final”.
Nigeria’s coach has also indicated that there could be game time for players in the squad yet to play in the competition and as in the game against Madagascar which Nigeria lost 2-0 after Rohr made five changes to his side, there are concerns that a similar result could be in the offing for Nigeria on Wednesday.
But the 23-year-old Iwobi who was speaking at the pre-match press conference said the Super Eagles, regardless of playing personnel, always approach every game with the intention to win and Wednesday’s against Tunisia would be no different.
Iwobi said the incentive to beat a team ranked higher than Nigeria coupled with the urge to exact revenge for their semifinal loss was all the spur the team required to ensure victory.
“We take every game seriously and we treat every team with the same respect. We analyse them and we try to see how we are able to come up and defeat them,” Iwobi said.
“So, whether the coach decides for me to play or for someone else, he believes that the quality is there for the player to go and do their best to beat the team and we’ve done that with every team and it won’t be different against Tunisia.
“They give us more motivation as they are ahead of us in the ranking so, hopefully, we will be able to try and prove that we are better than them. It’s not going to be easy like any other matches but we will use that revenge that we lost in the semifinal and we will try to put it right and take it out in Tunisia with a win.”
