Nigeria’s fight was dented when Iwobi was sent for an early shower. His studs up challenge on Msakni was first punished with a yellow card, but once the referee was told to re-visit the scene at the pitchside monitor, the yellow was turned to red.
Youssef Msakni’s goal early in the second half fired up Tunisia to a 1-0 victory over 10-man Nigeria as the Carthage Eagles flew into the quarter finals of the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday.
Nigeria who had won all their group stage matches and looked like clear favourites to win had to finish the match with 10 men after Alex Iwobi who had just come on for Kelechi Iheanacho was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Msakni, barely seven minutes on the pitch.
Tunisia who lost to Nigeria by the same margin in the third and fourth play-off at the last Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The first half was cagy with not many scoring chances. Wilfred Ndidi was in action on either end of the pitch, first blocking Montassir Talbi’s shot from a corner off the line while on opoosite side, tried an acrobatic aim at goal which ended up wide.
In the second half, Tunisia came all out and they broke the deadlock just two minutes after the restart through Msakni. The skipper dragged a powerful swerving shot into the net which beat keeper Okoye Maduka despite having a touch on the ball.
Nigeria’s fight was dented when Iwobi was sent for an early shower. His studs up challenge on Msakni was first punished with a yellow card, but once the referee was told to re-visit the scene at the pitchside monitor, the yellow was turned to red.
Handicapped with numbers and limited in spaces, Nigeria couldn’t pose much danger with Maduka making a flying save to deny Naim Sliti once again with a shot from distance.
Off a counter, Nigeria had a chance to draw level but Umaru Sadiq’s attempt at clipping the ball beyond the keeper from the right went inches wide.