Rangers ace Joe Aribo reacts as Nigeria are dumped out of AFCON
Rangers midfielder Joe Aribo was unable to prevent Nigeria from getting eliminated at the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, and he has reacted to the blow.
Tunisia secured a 1-0 win over 10-men Super Eagles in the round of 16 of the tournament yesterday (23 January), and the 25-year-old has told All Nigeria Soccer exactly how he is feeling after the defeat.
Nigeria won all their three group games and were favourites against a Covid-struck Tunisia, who only managed a win in their group, but things did not go as planned for the West Africans, and the Rangers ace and his teammates were left stunned.
Aribo told ANS when asked what he thought went wrong: “I think we started really slow, we allowed them to get a foothold in the game.
“You can’t take anything away from them, but we should have been better in the ninety minutes and it just took too long to respond until the first goal the only time we started playing and of course, we had the red card incident, which was a bit disappointing also.”
Shocking
Nigerians are always one of the favourites anytime AFCON is held, but they received the shock of their lives as they suffered their earliest elimination in the history of the tournament.
Their loss is a blessing in disguise for a Rangers midfield that has missed Aribo a great deal since he left, though.
The Super Eagles star has missed just two games across all competitions for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side, and they struggled without him in the middle of the park in the first game, drawing 1-1 against Aberdeen and seeing their lead at the top of the Premiership table cut to four points.
While Wednesday’s (26 January) game against Livingston could come early for him, Aribo could be available for weekend’s trip to Ross County.
He is expected to start when Rangers take on Celtic at Parkhead on 2 February, but that would have been impossible had Nigeria advanced to the quarterfinals.
The Bears ace featured in two group games for the three-time AFCON winners, weighing in with an assist in their 1-0 win over Egypt.
Aribo will now look to quickly get the international disappointment behind him and hit the ground running upon returning to Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, the BBC are facing a multi-million-pound defamation action over Gers documentary.