Akas: Oliseh will tell us how to handle Tunisia

Chima Akas, captain of the Super Eagles team to the ongoing African Nations Championship, says the team is relying on Coach Sunday Oliseh to provide them with the strategies with which to defeat Tunisia on Friday.

Speaking with TheCable in Rwanda, Akas said: “As my coach Oliseh said, Tunisia is a big country when it comes to football. And I know that it will be tough tomorrow but how we will do it and how we are going to do it that will bring success tomorrow is left for the coach.

“What I mean is that it will be a tough match against Tunisia tomorrow, because they are a good side. Very technical and tactical, too. As for the tactics or techniques we are going to use tomorrow to get the maximum points, it is left for the coach to say.

“The coach also watched the game and saw that Tunisia has tall players, so I am expecting the coach to tell us how to curtail them. But for me personally as the captain and a defender, I will make sure I arrange my defence line well so that we don’t allow them come near us too much.

“Also, we will make sure we don’t concede unnecessary free kicks at the edge of the box because I know that’s where their strength lies. We will make sure they don’t have such opportunity.”

Also speaking, Hatem Missaoui coach of Tunisia, said he and his players were not unduly worried about the prowess of Chisom Chikatara, who came on to score a hat trick for the Super Eagles against Niger.

“We have a different formation. We don’t defend against a specific player. We are not going to be defending against Chikatara tomorrow‎,” he said.

“We don’t mark individually. We are planning to defend well tomorrow. Akaichi scored two goals in the first game, I am very sure that he can score more against Nigeria tomorrow.

“I agree with the Nigerian coach. There are no better leagues or teams now in the competition. The Central African countries have become the favourites with the games they’ve played so far. You could see that they have adapted to the system easily. So, they are now the favorites and not Tunisia.”