Nigeria captain Joseph Yobo believes that his
side have
responded well to
the criticism they
received before the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. The Super Eagles face Burkina
Faso in the final of the
competition, having knocked out
pre-tournament favourites Cote
d'Ivoire in the last eight, and the
Fenerbahce defender is delighted with his side's progress. "Sometimes it is good to have
negative people around you, and
also those you undermine you,
because they push you to become
the best you can possibly be," he
toldGoal.com. "I will not lie. This has been a
great journey. At the same time,
things have not been easy, as
you can see, the competition has
been tight. "We need to be humble for our
success. We are aware that it
was only God's grace and
therefore we must try not to
take the credit. I think this was a
great victory and every player contributed in the win." Yobo went on to say that he
does not really care who starts
the final, so long as they do well. "It doesn't really matter who
starts the match, I believe that
every decision that the coach
makes, is for the better," he
continued. "Even during the finals, I will not
really be concerned about
starting, but so long as I will get
a chance to play and add value to
the team." Nigeria beat Mali 4-1 in the semi-
final on February 6, and Yobo
revealed they targeted their
opponents' lack of dynamism. "We knew that they don't really
rely on pace so we thought that
it is better if we just try and kill
them [with pace] during the first
half," he added. "Honestly, I did not think that we
were going to score so many
goals, but when opportunities
came, we made sure that we
capitalised."