Nigeria on Wednesday night at the Al Salam Stadium, Cairo, maintain their invincibility in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) third place match as the Super Eagles defeated the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia 1-0 to grab the ‘golden’ bronze at Egypt 2019.
Odion Ighalo scored what turned out to be the match winner in the third minute of the game, when he powerfully connected a loose ball into the net after goalkeeper Moez Ben Cherifia had misjudged a cross from Jamilu Collins.
Ighalo became the first Nigerian to score five goals in a single AFCON tournament since 1994 after the late Rashidi Yekini.
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AFCON debutant, Francis Uzoho, was well positioned to push  a grounder from Taha Khenissi in the eighth minute for a corner kick to be taken, while six minutes later, Ferjani Sassi close to the box missed the target .
Wilfred Ndidi shot wide in the 26th minute after a perfect control of the ball while
Victor Osimhen came on to replace Ighalo at the start of the second half after the former had sustained an injury before break.
Simon Moses was introduced in place of captain Ahmed Musa in the 75th minute, while Samuel Kalu replaced Samuel Chukwueze in the 89th minute.
Kalu’s free kick shortly was pushed away by the Tunisian keeper in the closing stages as the Eagles maintained a clean slate in the match handled by Egyptian Gehad Grisha.
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This will be the eighth time Nigeria had won the AFCON bronze.
It will be recalled that Super Eagles have never lost AFCON third-place match winning in Ethiopia in 1976 (against Guinea), Ghana in 1978 (against Tunisia), Senegal in 1992 (against Cameroon), Mali in 2002 (against Mali), Tunisia in 2004 (against Mali), Egypt in 2006 (against Senegal) and Angola in 2010 (against Algeria).