Former Super Eagles captain and Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel said the final of the Africa Cup of Nations may be a duel between the Super Eagles and the Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire.
Mikel who was speaking on his ‘Obi One’ podcast said when asked to make his prediction: “I think so. I was thinking about it the other day and I was thinking that we managed to beat them in the group stage and they were on the verge of leaving the tournament and all of a sudden you know, they are back in it now.
“They have got a wind with them and now are playing pretty okay but not so well, but they have started to win games and now if they can manage to get to the final, who knows?”
The Elephants were beaten in group A by the Super Eagles 1-0 and also suffered a humiliating loss to Equatorial Guinea. They rode on the back of the three points they collected from Guinea Bissau into the round of 16 and a favour from Morocco against Zambia. The Elephants against all predictions shocked defending champions Senegal 2-1 in the round of 16. Again they came from a goal down to beat Mali 2-1 in extra time to give Ivorians confidence they can ride their luck to the final and win.
“When you reach the semi-finals, you play with teams of high quality, so we are going to prepare ourselves,” Elephants coach Emerse Fae said.
The Super Eagles have to beat South Africa first to dream of putting their hands on the trophy. They started their campaign with a draw against Equatorial Guinea and have gone on with a rock solid confidence.
