The Super Eagles of Nigeria late Wednesday at the Al-Salaam Stadium in the Egyptian capital, defeated the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia by 1-0 to clinch the third place at the ongoing African Cup of Nations.

Returning to the pitch less than 5 days after losing the Semi final tie to Algeria, Odion Ighalo, tapped in the only goal of the encounter inside 2 minutes of the first half, after keeper Moez Ben Cherifia deflected the ball off his own defender Yassine Meriah. He was however, substituted with young sensation, Victor Osimhen in injury time of first half owing to a suspected strain as he raced off a counter and tried to make a pass.

The Shanghai Shenhua forward thus becomes the second Nigerian striker to score 5 goals in a single AFCON after Rashidi Yekini in 1994, which also places him as favourite, ahead of Senegalese Sadio Mane and Algerian Adam Ounas who both trail him by two goals, to emerge top scorer of the 2019 tournament.

With Wednesday’s win, the Super Eagles who have already won bronze seven times before, three more than Ivory Coast in second place with four; retained their record as the country with the most third-place wins at the Africa Cup of Nations.

This is coming at their third attempt to clinch the AFCON trophy which they last won in 2013 after failing to qualify for the last 2 editions won by Cote d’ Ivoire in 2015 and Cameroun in 2017.

STATS | Check out the full-time stats! Which team had the better overall performance? #TotalAFCON2019 #TUNNGA pic.twitter.com/8xYwbi8BOg

— CAF (@CAF_Online) July 17, 2019

#TotalAFCON2019
After his stellar performance, @WTroostEkong
has been selected as the Total Man of the Match. Congrats!#TUNNGA #FootballTogether pic.twitter.com/LYGG6EBPp0

— CAF (@CAF_Online) July 17, 2019

FT: #Tunisia 0-1 #Nigeria

Odion Ighalo’s early goal enough to seal #SuperEagles’ EIGHTH third-place play-off success at the #AFCON tournament.

1976?
1978?
1992?
2002?
2004?
2006?
2010?
2019?

Second place?1984, 1988, 1990 & 2000.

AFCON champions?1980, 1994 & 2013. pic.twitter.com/lg0XWs8KVB

— Oluwashina Okeleji (@oluwashina) July 17, 2019

Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq

Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.