Joe Aribo Confesses: We Were Too Slow In Our Start Against Tunisia

Glasgow Rangers of Scotland midfielder, Joe Aribo has admitted that he and his colleagues in the Super Eagles started too slowly in their Africa Cup of Nations round of 16 clash with Tunisia, thereby allowing their opponents gain a foothold on the game, megasportsarena.com reports.

The former Charlton Athletic of England dazzler, who was a shadow of his usual ubiquitous self during the encounter in Garoua, Cameroon, admitted further that the Eagles’ shaky start to Sunday’s game gave the Tunisians lots of confidence as the minutes dragged by and The Carthage Eagles eventually got the back breaking goal.

Aribo, who was born in London, England to a father that hails from Ondo State, added that he personally would have loved to play better during the ill-fated encounter, but ended with a declaration that the Eagles will pick up the pieces soonest.

Indeed, the Cupids-faced lad failed to replicate the form that saw him snatch his first assist for the Eagles in their opening Group D win against Egypt and set the tournament alight by causing problems with his runs from midfield to join the attack.

Aribo, who could not score his first competitive international goal in three matches he featured, posited: “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.

“The only time we started playing and of course we had the red card incident which was a bit disappointing also.

“We go into every game with respect for our opponents so it has nothing to do with underestimating them.

“They had a good game plan, they did what they had to do but we just weren’t good enough on the day.

“We could have done this different, we could have done that different but we just weren’t good enough in the ninety minutes.

“We gave them too much respect I’d say on the ball but we just needed to be better and take the game to them more.

“I felt after their first goal we responded well, I thought we would have had a lot more chances.

“We were chasing the game with ten men and it’s a lot easier for them because of the extra man.

“We need to dust yourself off; we need to go again. We just need to keep pushing and stay together as a team.”