On January 24, Beijing time, the African Cup of Nations 1/8 final has begun, the two games in the first half of the zone ended first, Burkina Faso 1-1 draw with Gabon, penalty shootout to eliminate Gabon 7-6; this African Cup of Nations group stage performance best to get 9 points Nigeria lost 0-1 to the group stage suffered injustice and frequent upset Tunisia. Burkina Faso will face Tunisia in the quarter-finals, and with Burkina Faso only 60th in the world ranking and a relatively mediocre squad configuration, Tunisia seems to be on one foot to reach the top 4.
As the number one favourite in the quarter-finals of this year's Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria's exit came as a surprise. In the group stage, Nigeria beat Egypt 1-0, Sudan 3-1 and Guinea-Bissau 2-0, with a solid performance on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. Tunisia broke out two big upsets in the group stage, losing 0-1 to Mali and 0-1 to the Gambia, and it was only with the performance of Mauritania in the second round of the group that it was thrilling to enter the knockout stage as the third in the group.
Nigeria is currently ranked 36th in the world and Tunisia is ranked 30th in the world, and the two teams met directly in the Quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, comparable to the direct dialogue between the two winning favourites. Historically, Nigeria, which has won the Copa America 3 times, has suppressed Tunisia for many years, and after entering the 21st century, Nigeria has never lost to Tunisia in regular game time, 8 dialogues, 2 wins and 6 draws, so this game is widely watched; Tunisia is in this African Cup of Nations, and was bizarrely enforced by the referee, 0-1 loss to Mali, the referee in the 85th minute and 89th minutes of the game twice blew the whistle of the end of the game, making Tunisia play very depressed.
In the game, Nigeria played the expected game picture, offensively suppressed the opponent, 57% of the possession, 14 shots on goal, Tunisia only 8 shots on goal, but Nigeria was inefficient, only 1 shot on target, Tunisia scored 1 goal on 3 shots. In the 46th minute of the match, Msakani scored a powerful long-range shot directly outside the box to give Tunisia the lead; in the 65th minute of the game, Nigeria made it worse, Iwobi directly trampled on the foul in the confrontation, was sent off by the referee red card, and finally Nigeria lost 0-1 to Tunisia.
The loss, Africa's three champions Nigeria gave birth to two major humiliating records, the first, the first regular game time of the century lost to Tunisia, and the second, the first time since 2008 in the first round of the African Cup of Nations knockout round out. Tunisia, ranked 30th in the world, has completed a great rebound in adversity, the last 6 times to participate in the African Cup of Nations, the performance is stable, including 5 times in the top 8, the best result is the 2019 African Cup of Nations, that is, the last African Cup of Nations top-4, when the semi-finals lost 0-1 to Senegal, the third and fourth finals lost 0-1 to Nigeria, and finally won the fourth place, this defeat to Nigeria is a revenge. Tunisia last missed the Africa Cup of Nations Quarter-Finals in 2013.