'Everybody's trying to play safe' - Eguavoen on why Aina, Sanusi were not allowed to bomb forward

Despite the Tunisia national team adopting a low-block against Nigeria in their round of 16 Africa Cup of Nations clash, manager Augustine Eguavoen did not give the freedom to his pacy fullbacks Ola Aina and Zaidu Sanusi to bomb forward until after they were down to ten men in the second half.

With the Tunisians nullifying the threat from the wings, Eguavoen earlier suggested that he instructed the two front players to exploit the gaps in the opponents defence.

The Nigeria caretaker boss was criticized for failing to find a permanent solution to a problem he identified during the course of the game.

In his defence, Eguavoen suggested that most teams are cautious at this stage of the tournament, bearing it in mind they could be caught on the counter-attack.

Asked to explain why the fullbacks were not given the freedom to bomb forward before they conceded, Eguavoen said at the post-match press conference : "We asked Moses to try to drift in and then we can allow Zaidu to come from the side because as at that point in time you talk about being predictable, yes, but again this is a knockout stage and everybody's trying to play safe as well.

"The Tunisians were just playing for time as far as I'm concerned and then see if they can get something out and beginning of the second half they got it and they all went back.

"It is something that we can improve on, now there's no second chance to come back to the AFCON in this game but going forward we'll try to improve, that's why when things happen we take tapes and review."

With the exception of the dead rubber clash against Guinea-Bissau, Aina and Sanusi went the distance in all the matches contested by the Super Eagles in Cameroon.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel