AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

January 26, 2022 Selim Ben Hmida

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Tunisia succeeded in qualifying to the AFCON’s quarter-finals after beating the title favourites, Nigeria, in a match that ended with a 1-0 win for the Carthaginians – who surprised most followers of the competition with a completely different performance than those seen during the group stage matches. Tunisia weren’t able to display their best performances against Mali and Gambia despite winning and convincing in their second group stage match against Mauritania.

Moreover, the team suffered from harsh circumstances and were prevented from the services of numerous key players like Ali Maaloul, Ghaylène Chaalali, Aymen Dahmen, Yoann Touzghar, Dylan Bronn, Naïm Sliti as well as the team’s head coach Mondher Kebaier, the doctor and other staff members. It is sufficient to mention that players like Wahbi Khazri and Issam Jebali travelled and reached the stadium just three hours before the match kick-off following their negative Covid-19 tests to get an idea of the complicated situation that preceded the match.

But despite all these circumstances, Tunisia were still able to put on an excellent performance from different aspects against a tough Nigerian side.

In this tactical analysis article, the focus will be on Tunisia’s defensive performance/tactics and how they were able to stop Nigeria’s dangerous attacking players. In the meantime, the analysis will tackle the attacking aspect, looking at what could have been done better from both sides.

Line-ups

Tunisia were lined-up according to the 4-3-3 formation with Bechir Ben Said as a goalkeeper, Bilel Ifa and Montassar Talbi as centre-backs, with Mohamed Dräger Oussama Haddadi as full-backs. The midfield was composed of Ellyes Skhiri, Aïssa Laïdouni and Anis Ben Slimane while Hamza Rafia and Youssef Msakni played on the wings in support of the striker, Seifeddine Jaziri.

Nigeria started the match using the 4-4-2 formation with Maduka Okoye as a goalkeeper, Serie A and Torino’s Ola Aina, William Troost-Ekong, La Liga and specifically Leganés’ Kenneth Omeruo and Zaidu Sanusi in defence, Wilfred Ndidi and Joe Aribo as central midfielders, Samuel Chukwueze and Ligue 1’s Moses Simon on the wings with former Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho as well as Taiwo Awoniyi as strikers.

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Tunisia’s efficient defensive performance

Tunisia were aware of Nigeria’s attacking efficiency and danger and therefore they took all the necessary measures to stop them. Yet, this wasn’t going to be enough if the Tunisian players weren’t fully concentrated especially when marking their opponents. You can see in the following example how Dräger was instructed to keep marking one of Nigeria’s most dangerous players in the tournament so far, Moses Simon, and to not allow him to exploit his acceleration and dribbling skills.

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Moreover, Dräger’s marking to Simon wasn’t going to be sufficient if he was not supported by one of Skhiri, Laïdouni or Ben Slimane on each occasion, closing all forward passes’ lanes and obliging Simon to retreat or pass the ball backwards. Such tactics were used to reduce the free space allowed to Nigerian players while keeping in mind that Nigeria usually relies on such individual skills.

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As you can see above, a player like Simon often initiates the attack from the wing after finding an unmarked attacking player to do a passing combination with. Then, he relies on his mazing run to surpass his opponents and penetrate towards the penalty box. Such actions were recurrently successful as Simon scored goals using this approach.

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Despite the application of strict defensive measures, Nigeria and Simon were still able to create danger with the use of the same pattern. But luckily for Tunisia, this happened too late in the game when Nigerian players looked a bit tired and desperate to score. Moreover, this was the only time in which Simon was allowed the space to do such one-two combinations in the Tunisian final third. But then, Ndidi’s shot went away from the goal.

Tunisia’s two centre-backs Talbi and Ifa were attentive throughout the match by marking Iheanacho and Awoniyi in the best possible way. They were often so close to these strikers especially during crosses or long passes as they anticipated most passing attempts to these players inside the penalty box.

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The following picture just shows how crucial Ifa’s interventions were during some actions since Iheanacho was about to score a header following an excellent cross from Chukwueze. Yet, Ifa’s timing of the clearance was perfect, preventing his opponent from touching the ball and saving his team from a concrete goalscoring chance.

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Moreover, it should be said that Ifa and Talbi resorted to sliding tackles on several occasions to save the team from dangerous attacking situations. This Italian defensive style helped the team a lot in terms of confidence and psychological advantage as winning such duels with confidence gave the whole team an additional boost and affected their defensive performance positively. As an example, an attacking player like Msakni was seen doing pressing on several occasions during this match, as opposed to his previous performances. Not only that, Msakni’s defensive contribution was effective not just in terms of ball recuperation but also in obliging Alex Iwobi into committing a foul that cost him a red card at a delicate time.

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Nigeria and Tunisia’s attacking performances and missed chances

Even though Tunisia’s defensive performance was solid, Nigeria still had some clear goalscoring chances that they weren’t able to exploit successfully. Tunisian players committed a few marking mistakes like the one shown below when Dräger left too much space to Simon and didn’t mark him properly. Therefore, he received a cross on the far post but unfortunately for him and for Nigeria, his control was not good enough and it cost him some precious seconds apart from obliging him to shoot using his weaker foot. Moreover, Ben Said’s quick reaction and save were crucial in this action.

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Tunisia had a very similar occasion at the start of the match when Rafia exploited Nigeria’s poor marking on the far post and provided an excellent cross to Talbi who advanced to aim at scoring. However, his finishing was not on point as he missed a clear goalscoring opportunity such as Simon did above.

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In addition, Rafia had some dangerous shooting opportunities but his decision-making was not good enough in most of these situations. His lack of experience affected his decision-making timing and therefore he looked hesitant several times. And in this kind of matches, there is no time for thinking twice about decisions. For instance, Rafia was hesitant about shooting in this action, and since he decided to shoot at the last second and didn’t prepare himself nor did he coordinate his body for a shot, it was complicated for his shot to reach the target.

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On the contrary, Sliti’s entrance in the second half gave a fresh boost to Tunisia’s attacking performance as the coaching staff saw that the attacking players started to look tired. Sliti was not only fundamental in keeping the ball in the final third but he was also close to scoring after he exploited the space left in front of him and attempted a powerful curled shot that Okoye was able to save miraculously.

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That was a similar action to Msakni’s goal that was scored following a completely individual effort from the 31-year-old player who got the ball in Nigeria’s final third, dribbled past his opponent and decided to shoot from distance and with power to not give a chance for the goalkeeper to save it. What helped Msakni as well was that the shot made a slight deviation before reaching the goal, which confused Okoye and had a negative impact on his saving attempt.

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Conclusion

In order to resume, Tunisia’s realistic attacking performance and their solid defensive system made the difference in this match. Having an average of 43% shots on target while shooting only seven times when Nigeria had 18% shots on target despite shooting 11 times says a lot about the attacking realism and the compact defensive system that helped Tunisia reduce the danger of Nigeria’s attacks and shots.

Nigeria will try to bounce back soon in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers’ play-offs against Ghana following both teams’ early elimination from the AFCON while Tunisia will aim at beating Burkina Faso on Saturday in order to reach the semi-finals.


Image I am Selim Ben Hmida, a Tunisian football analyst and a passionate fan of this sport. Follow me on Twitter if you are interested in reading more about the tactical side of the game.

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/match ... is-tactics
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

Post by delisyomie don »

luck was not on naija side that day no matter how good team is they need luck to make at the end, the faulty keeper mistake ,red card and two miss chance probably lack of technical sound from coaching crew to switch off wing play etc.forget about this italian whatever let see how they will do that against bukina faso why can they not play like that against gambia or mali. am betting you bukinafaso will come through
thanks
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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delisyomie don wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:38 pm luck was not on naija side that day no matter how good team is they need luck to make at the end, the faulty keeper mistake ,red card and two miss chance probably lack of technical sound from coaching crew to switch off wing play etc.forget about this italian whatever let see how they will do that against bukina faso why can they not play like that against gambia or mali. am betting you bukinafaso will come through
I utterly agree with you my brother :).
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Everyone is now an expert on how Tunisia beat Nigeria. No be him fault. Na Eguavoen cause am.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Some of you could learn something from that analysis...
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

Post by Lolly »

The YeyeMan wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:58 pm Some of you could learn something from that analysis...
Everything he wrote there has been discussed on the same day of the match including during the match itself.

But you are right, some people can learn some things from it.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Lolly wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:46 pm Everyone is now an expert on how Tunisia beat Nigeria. No be him fault. Na Eguavoen cause am.
:rotf:
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Too much PowerPoint analysis, me I refuse to give Tunisia any credit for "masterfully" beating Nigeria cause they did nothing special, it was more a case of Eguavoen been tactically clueless than them pulling off some prime Pep Guardiola high IQ masterclass.

They packed the bus for considerably long minutes of both halfs and relied on a freak shot out of no where to score (ably helped by bad goal keeping by Maduka as well), before and after the goal they created next to nothing significant in terms of any creative goal scoring threat, we even outplayed them significantly with 10 men and if our forwards had half the finishing abilities in their cleats, we would have pulled it off... We had 2 or 3 1 v 1s with their GK... they had none against us.

Lastly identifying and marking out our most dangerous player (Simon) was nothing special, it was just the same way we effectively nullified Salah in our opening group stage match against Egypt, just double team the most dangerous player and force him to play the ball back... At the end I blame Eguavoen for not been smart enough to pull Simon out and switch him to another position while bringing in someone like Ejuke or Olayinka earlier on in the first half to disrupt the "focus on Simon Moses" tactics of the Tunisians, he failed again in providing a balance in that midfield even when it was on obvious pattern right through the first half that Ndidi and Aribo were willfully crowded out by the Tunisians, given us no room to press forward... a smart coach shouldn't have waited late into the second half when we were trailing by a goal to REACT, right on the hour mark of second half an intelligent coach should have already prepared subs and tweak his formation with either Onyeka or Nwakali coming in to support Ndidi; thus nullifying the Tunisians in the midfield and give Aribo more luxury to press forward with Simon playing a more inverted role with special instructions to either of the full backs playing behind him to stretch out the flanks more by providing overlapping runs...


I no be coach, I no get UEFA coaching badge... But I have more IQ than most of these pretenders who call themselves coaches, any average coach with a brain would have beaten that Tunisian team, they were so poor that they were easily there for the taking... luck, an unfortunate red card to Iwobi, and a $#% GK like Maduka made the job easier for them than they deserved.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Someone on youtube said .."as good as the Nigerian Players are (I am baffled ) they are finding it difficult to beat Arabs..

Smart football will at most times triumph over dumb football
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Robotnik wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:16 pm Someone on youtube said .."as good as the Nigerian Players are (I am baffled ) they are finding it difficult to beat Arabs..

Smart football will at most times triumph over dumb football
Egyptians are what again?
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Tobi17 wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:19 pm Too much PowerPoint analysis, me I refuse to give Tunisia any credit for "masterfully" beating Nigeria cause they did nothing special, it was more a case of Eguavoen been tactically clueless than them pulling off some prime Pep Guardiola high IQ masterclass.

They packed the bus for considerably long minutes of both halfs and relied on a freak shot out of no where to score (ably helped by bad goal keeping by Maduka as well), before and after the goal they created next to nothing significant in terms of any creative goal scoring threat, we even outplayed them significantly with 10 men and if our forwards had half the finishing abilities in their cleats, we would have pulled it off... We had 2 or 3 1 v 1s with their GK... they had none against us.

Lastly identifying and marking out our most dangerous player (Simon) was nothing special, it was just the same way we effectively nullified Salah in our opening group stage match against Egypt, just double team the most dangerous player and force him to play the ball back... At the end I blame Eguavoen for not been smart enough to pull Simon out and switch him to another position while bringing in someone like Ejuke or Olayinka earlier on in the first half to disrupt the "focus on Simon Moses" tactics of the Tunisians, he failed again in providing a balance in that midfield even when it was on obvious pattern right through the first half that Ndidi and Aribo were willfully crowded out by the Tunisians, given us no room to press forward... a smart coach shouldn't have waited late into the second half when we were trailing by a goal to REACT, right on the hour mark of second half an intelligent coach should have already prepared subs and tweak his formation with either Onyeka or Nwakali coming in to support Ndidi; thus nullifying the Tunisians in the midfield and give Aribo more luxury to press forward with Simon playing a more inverted role with special instructions to either of the full backs playing behind him to stretch out the flanks more by providing overlapping runs...


I no be coach, I no get UEFA coaching badge... But I have more IQ than most of these pretenders who call themselves coaches, any average coach with a brain would have beaten that Tunisian team, they were so poor that they were easily there for the taking... luck, an unfortunate red card to Iwobi, and a $#% GK like Maduka made the job easier for them than they deserved.
If we won the game by taking our chances, it would be a different story. During the game I noticed that we needed a bit of urgency in the first half and better marking. The Tunisians were happy to slow the game even more. To me wing play should give us options but if that's not working we can go through the middle but this has to be done with pace otherwise spaces will be closed. In my opinion I think we have some lazy players in the middle. I thought Simon will spur them on but I was wrong. Most cases shorts are off target or poor.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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What's all this nonsense? The Goalie gave up a relatively easy goal, and we got an undeserved red card. That's it.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

Post by EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA »

Schillachi wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 7:17 pm What's all this nonsense? The Goalie gave up a relatively easy goal, and we got an undeserved red card. That's it.
Abi o. Now they claim its an Italian job. Kai....we don suffer. Tunisia comparing its defense to Italy against us. How the mighty have fallen.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Tunisia are considered the Italy of North African football,. That’s how their fellow North African countries see them. They say never go a goal down against Tunisia..You’re toast if that happens. Go look at their records and history.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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iworo, thanks for posting.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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they should play three times, I bet Nigeria would win 2 out of 3
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Nonsense. With all the tactical nonsense we created several clear scoring chances. If we were clinical we would beaten or at least tied the game with 10 men. I fully believe we would have won the game but for Iwobi's red card!
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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I will say their defensive formation was effective in the first half.
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

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Goalgetter wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 8:56 pm Tunisia are considered the Italy of North African football,. That’s how their fellow North African countries see them. They say never go a goal down against Tunisia..You’re toast if that happens. Go look at their records and history.
no lie there, they play negative footie on world stage
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Re: AFCON 2021: How Tunisia went “Italian” to knock out Nigeria – tactical analysis

Post by Igugu »

wanaj0 wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:41 pm
Robotnik wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:16 pm Someone on youtube said .."as good as the Nigerian Players are (I am baffled ) they are finding it difficult to beat Arabs..

Smart football will at most times triumph over dumb football
Egyptians are what again?
All these North Africans think of themselves as Arabs first, if not totally. They will deny being Africans when the condition permits it. That is the way it is.

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