Mikel: We stopped Cote D’ Ivoire from playing

The Nigeria midfielder has said the key to
their victory over the Elephants was to not
allow their opponents play their own
football
By Lolade Adewuyi , In Rustenburg
Feb 3, 2013 7 :11 :00 PM
Nigeria midfielder
John Obi Mikel
has praised his
side’s 2-1 victory
against Cote
D’Ivoire in
Sunday’s quarter
final match of the
Africa Cup of
Nations.
Sunday Mba scored the winning goal after
Cheik Tiote had cancelled Emmanuel
Emenike’s first half lead.
“We’re very happy with our achievement,”
Mikel said after the game. “A big
congratulations to Ivory Coast for their
achievement so far in the tournament but
today we knew that they’re a good team
so if we were able to work together and
play for each other on the pitch, then we
could stop them.
“And that’s exactly what we have done
today.”
Having defeated the pre-tournament
favourites, do the Super Eagles now have
the confidence of getting to their first
final since 2000, Mikel was asked.
“We still have a semi final to play. We have
to keep taking each game one at a time
and hopefully if we manage to play well
like we did today, we will be very pleased
with ourselves,” he concluded.
Nigeria will play against Mali in the semi
final on Wednesday in Durban.