A former Manchester City and Ivory Coast midfielder, Yaya Toure, has named the Super Eagles of Nigeria as the most impressive national team at the just-concluded African Cup of Nations tournament.
Eric Chelle’s free-scoring side had an impressive unbeaten run in the tournament until their unfortunate semifinal loss to hosts Morocco 4-2 on penalties, scoring 14 goals and only conceding four. They bowed out of the tournament with a third-place finish by beating Egypt on penalties.
Reacting to the overall tournament’s display in an interview with Bleacher Report Footballon Monday, Toure, who won the African Footballer of the Year award for a whopping four consecutive times, had praises for Algeria and the hosts Morocco, who he felt were impressive at the tournament for their gameplay.
According to the Saudi Arabia assistant coach, Morocco, who were beaten in the final by Senegal in a dramatic fashion, were very direct and pragmatic in their play.
“I’ve been seeing the AFCON, and I’ve been there as well. I’ve been impressed with Algeria; unfortunately, they were kicked out by Nigeria. I’m impressed by the team with Regradi, the manager of Morocco, very pragmatic, very direct and playing counterattack,” he said.
However, the former Barcelona player named Nigeria as the standout team of the biennial tournament.
The former Barcelona star said, “I was impressed with Nigeria. Nigeria played good football. When you see the stats, they’ve been scoring more than usual goals, full strike, full attack, playing very good football. The most impressive for me, in my opinion, was Nigeria. The football they were playing, the goals they were scoring, the players winning, because I think they have two of the best African players in their team. They played such wonderful games, and they got kicked out by Morocco in the semifinal, as you can see.”
Toure also admired the Congolese team as well as his Ivorian side, but admitted that they were young and naive.
“Well, Congo was also good. I like Congo. They were doing well until they were kicked out by Algeria. I think ivory Coast team was a young team, at times a bit naive, but anyway, it’s part of football and experience,” he added.
