Nigeria coach Christian Chukwu hailed his team's African Nations Cup quarter-final win over Cameroon on Sunday and said it meant that his Super Eagles had brought to an end the Indomitable Lions' golden age.
"The time has come and gone for Cameroon," said Chukwu minutes after the 2-1 win had knocked the two-time defending champions out of the tournament and put his team into a semi-final match-up against Tunisia.
"In my playing days, we were always overrunning Cameroonian teams. And then they took over from us. It was their time and this happens in football.
"With this victory everything has turned around again and I believe that it is Nigeria's time to now dominate the scene once more."
Before their victory in Monastir, Nigeria, African champions in 1980 and 1994, had lost three times to Cameroon in three Nations Cup finals - in 1984, 1988 and 2000.
Added to this was that Cameroon had denied the Eagles the chance to advance to the latter stages of the qualifying series of the 1990 World Cup while their junior teams have often proved superior to their Nigerian counterparts, forcing the local Nigerian press to dub this dominance as a "jinx."
"It was really heart breaking losing the Nations Cup final right in front of our home fans four years ago," said 29-year-old midfielder Garba Lawal, one of only four Nigerians players here in Tunisia from that edition of the competition.
"We were robbed in Lagos and had to settle for a silver medal but our victory today has really made up for all the disappointments we have suffered for so long at the hands of Cameroon."
His joy was matched by former Nigeria skipper Segun Odegbami.
"I saw this victory coming. This is a different team from the others who have lost to Cameroon and I was very confident they could finally turn it around for good.
"But there is still a lot more work ahead of this young team and one of the targets after putting aside Cameroon is to go on and win the cup again in Tunisia."
Nigeria will face hosts Tunisia on Wednesday at the Rades Stadium in one semi-final while Mali tackle the winner of the Algeria versus Morocco quarter-final in Sousse.
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