Ivory
Coast captain Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou have tipped their
conquerors, the Super Eagles, for the AFCON title after knocking the
erstwhile tournament favourites out of the competition.
The former Chelsea duo praised the Nigeria team for their courage and display in Sunday’s quarter-final clash.
“I was very impressed with the Super
Eagles’ performance against us (Ivory Coast). It’s proof of hard work,
relentlessness and the sign of a world-class team in preparation,”
Drogba said.
“I don’t really see any team that can
withstand Nigeria for the rest of the tournament. They keep improving by
each game and level of the competition.
“That shows it’s a hardworking and
resilient outfit. If they must take the trophy home they have to keep
working, be creative and challenge any side like they engaged us.
“Wishing for and seeing victory is not
enough. I feel this is Nigeria time but they must deserve it by proving
it more on the pitch. The fact that the team arrived with a number of
home-based players means we have to give them praise because that tells
us there is football even within the continent,” he said.
Kalou said, “Nigeria have a good chance at the tournament after the way they played against us.
“We also played a good game but we did
not play in our usual way. We were forced to play long balls and that
was not our style. We are shaper when we play between the lines. By the
time we found out how strong Nigeria were, we were already behind them
and we did not recover from that.”
Kalou said his side knew how the Super Eagles would approach the match but it was impossible to match their quality in the game.
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