Côte d’Ivoire striker Sebastien Haller has said the Elephants will go into Sunday’s AFCON 2023 final against Nigeria’s Super Eagles with revenge in mind.
The Eagles handed Côte d’Ivoire their first defeat of the tournament thanks to a 1-0 win courtesy of a William Troost-Ekong second half penalty.
Haller did not feature in the defeat as he was still recovering from injury.
The hosts were then on the brink of elimination in the group stage following a shock 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea in their final Group A game.
Luckily, they managed to qualify as one of the four best third placed teams and went all the way to the final thanks to wins against champions Senegal, Mali and DR Congo.
Haller was the hero in the semi-final win against DR Congo as his volley secured a first AFCON final appearance for Côte d’Ivoire since 2015.
Now standing in the way of the Ivory Coast and a third AFCON title is the Eagles.
Looking ahead to the big clash, Haller said via BBC Sport Africa, “It’s a final and you’re there to win it. We’ll analyse everything in order to gain our revenge.”
The Borussia Dortmund striker reflected on his team’s journey in the competition, the striker admitted the home fans have played a huge role for them to have come this far.
“It’s certain the public push us in every moment,” he said. “When the public is there and make noise and push us, that makes the difference.
“We knew we had the potential to succeed and go far in the competition. The quality on the field is all over. There were lots of things missing from the start of the competition, and we have been trying to find the things that were missing to perform.”
39 Comments
The pressure of winning the game wil not allow Cote D’Ivoire to win
The fear of the Nigerian attack.the fear of get over the Nigerian defense and the fear of the Nigerian keeper by the Cote D’Ivoire team is enough.
Except the God want them to carry d day using vàr room . Dey Cote D’Ivoire can’t win this.
Ivory Coast have far better strikers. Pepe is the best. Nigeria can win but will sweat. Musa, Aribo and Ojo must start.
You are really from West and it must be from Ghana.ungrateful thing like you.
It seems some of us don’t get it. No one can revenge whoever God set on His back. The Super Eagles are on a divine mission. Forget good strikers or not. Super Eagles are winning the match come on Sunday night. Mark this day.
Ok oo Mr haller see you on Sunday with your revenge.but don’t be surprised picking ball inside your net three times.
We Nigerians like to boast too much. Ivory Coast have home advantage. They have better midfielders and a good goalkeeper.
Oga u are from Ghana
Your prediction against Nigeria in this tournament has never worked for once. Go and sleep. Bad Belle. You are not a Nigeria. You go take basket cover face on Sunday after the match.
@Nnamdi Kubolor West from Banku Republic infiltrating our space with bad luck and failure oozing over him. How do you expect Ghana to succeed if you people don’t repent since 1982 you have been producing haters and you expect to win tea spoon hell No you all must be living in illusion if you keep sowing Kenkey and expect to reap Jollof Rice!!
Sebastien Haller is a bench warmer at Dortmund. He seldom starts their games, and he is sluggish striker. Ekong and Ajayi will handle him.
So long as Peseiro keeps to his 3.4.3. formation, there’s no revenge anywhere. This would however depend on the interpretation and the boys to prosecute the game. He needs active fulbacks who can run the flanks with good crossing ability, confident and tested ball jogglers that can be effective for both possession and transitional play. Bassey, Osayi, Aina provide this balance with Ekong, Ajayi or Omerua providing coverage for the horoic revelation of the tourney, Nwabili. Alhassan, Frank and Aribo or Ihenacho at the center of the pack. No way Osimen, Lookman and Simon won’t be fed to score goals. That’s the winning team based on performance rating.
Aribo has to play with Musa against Ivory Coast . Nigeria must stay focused. After the tournament we need to recall Shehu Abdullahi, he is far and away better than Ola Aina. Up Nigeria.
I wonder what you smoking!!!
My brother leave that Ghanaian shoe maker that subscribed 10mo when it finished he will be calmed.so don’t bother yourself responding him.
Iwobi is good but Afcon seem to be too big for him. Remember, his waywardness was responsible for our loss to Tunisia in Garuo, Cameroon during the last afcon. Even now, he hasn’t justified whey he should be used as a sub talk more of starting the matches. Aribo is a better and fitter mid fielder judging from the few minutes he’s played in the tournament. Lets go for tested ones.
Who’s this head naught?
Rederede
You cant deceive anyone we know where you are coming from but Sunday is here with us. We will beat ivory coast in 90mins then your bp will increase. Think about your team and the future not Nigeria we are good and the future looks bright.
Guys what do you think about starting ihenacho ahead of iwobi??
D master stroke bro,but we will allow d coach do his job he is d master tactician
I definitely will prefer Iheanacho to Iwobi in the playmaker role. Iwobi doesn’t seem to offer much in the midfield and definitely not offering much attacking threat too so the coach can use Iheanacho as playmaker/2nd striker while Lookman or Simon drops to midfield…………………….I will prefer a 3-5-2 formation in the Final
I didn’t realize forces did pushed Iheanacho to the middle of the pack. The truth is that Aribo is needed to start in the finals. Iwobi or Nacho could be introduced as subs later on. It will be unwise for the coach to toil with our midfield mostly now that we are closed to winning the cup for the 4th time and also to guide against the revenge threat coming from that axis.
Umahia Kwenu! Hey! You spoke with wisdom. Aribo is a million miles better than Iheanacho and Iwobi combined.
What’s imahia kweku? Anyways, that’s your tribal lot, very tribalistic. Fact, we must put a halt to tribalism to appreciate merit based selection.
How will you change the team that has been winning in a final. That will be disastrous. And I wonder how we forget things easily in this country, everyone has forgotten that iheancho is a better baller when he comes in as a sub. And Iwobi is preferable to Aribo. Aribo is also better with three midfielders formation. And what we saw when they came on against SA may not be the same and more so with a physical team
It’s clear everyone has accepted to go on with the winning team but Alhassan Yusuf provides better balance in the middle compared to the wasteful and inconsistent Iwobi. So, the Coach needs to effect a replacement if we are gonna stand any chance of scoring goals in the finals. I don’t think this is difficult to understand.
@Dele made a whole lot of sense that’s if we have buried tribalism once and for all. Let’s go with the winning team.
Its not only about going with the winning team but look at th midfield where I Iwobi has fumbled match match out and Coach Peseiro doesn’t seem to realize it.
Onyeka, Yusuf and Aribo as midfielders will give us a better and acceptable control of the midfield.
We were talking about not changing players, you’re talking about changing formation again. Any changes the coach want to make can come in second half. Abi na Ghanaian I dey follow talk bcos all this suggestions are not necessary. Iwobi has contributed immensely even if we refuse to see his contributions. I hope we are all aware that we are using two flat midfielders. Iwobi is not playing as a ten, is one person at the left and another person at the right side by side. Aribo couldn’t cope when he started against GB.
You need to read @Tunde again unless you’re being emotional, didn’t u see the midfield transition when Yusuff was introduced in that all important match against South Africa? When Iwobi was good, we hailed him just as are hailing Nwabili right nw. The fact now is that Yisuff provides more winning attributes than Iwobi and that’s needed in a match of this sort.
How you know Ghana imposters here is they always prefer midiocre for our national team….They will tell you Musa and Aribo should start…..they will tell you we should drop Osimhen and Moffi for Ighalo…..they will tell you to start Uzoho ahead of Nwabili….They always bring negative ideas to this forum and claim to be one of us.
Hahahah exactly just like selfmade and this one that is claiming to be an igbo that said he is nnamdi west. He even Maintioned ojo
Addendum to #@Dele.
That system of play is well suited to aggressive pressing in the attacking third or in midfield, here Peseiro will do something about Iwobi who’s the only missing link so far. Osimhen anr co should do that job being the strikers that can put pressure directly on the Elephants defense by attacking and creating one-on-one situation, eg, man to man close marking. They can do so by attacking in the center or out wide as all we need is victory hence the coaching crew mustn’t be sentimental in their selection.
Umahia Kwenu! Hia! Umahia Kwenu, His! You spoke well. With this approach Super Eagles will win. Up Nigeria
I have always push for senior man to start instead of that iwobi that I am still doubting if he is the nephew to Jay jay or from their family ( Dna test needs to be conducted)…
And then please nobody should mention that aribo o… That guy has still not improve atall..
Monky Yash
Useless jealous ghanian, go and take your chale bro nnamdi (Kwabena Acheampong) west the demented swegbe and the both of unu leave here now now! Yeye dey smell!
We were talking about not changing players, you’re talking about changing formation again. Any changes the coach want to make can come in second half. Abi na Ghanaian I dey follow talk bcos all this suggestions are not necessary. Iwobi has contributed immensely even if we refuse to see his contributions. I hope we are all aware that we are using two flat midfielders. Iwobi is not playing as a ten, is one person at the left and another person at the right side by side. Aribo couldn’t cope when he started against GB.
@Jide we contrary to most of your belief. Nigeria definitely needs to ring some changes in this match. 3 players needs to be replaced. I Would start the game like this
NWABALI
AINA
AJAYI
EKONG
ZAIDU / OSAYI (71 Mins)
BASSEY
ONYEKA
IWOBI ( After coaches scolding for mistakes last game) /
LOOKMAN / IHEANACHO ( 66 mins)
OSIMHEN ( MOFFI 72 mins)
CHUKWUEZE / Simon
Some of you may even crucify me but, I would even start Moffi in this game and bring Osimhen on 60 mins or 55 mins. Only reason Osimhen I would start Osimhen ahead of Moffi is taking Penalties into account.
Its obvious the coach is going ahead with the winning team. May be a little adjustment like starting Yusuuf instead of the aimless playing iwobi. Otherwise, he has a good team.
Haller or whatever his name is, is mAAd. He should go and encourage his yeye ZOOcountry and leave us, proud Nigerians alone. Or they tell am say we wan breakup? Foool wanna revenge over football killing spilt milk. Haller, dey guess o!