Nigeria head coach Eric Chelle and his Tunisia counterpart, Sami Trabelsi, played down Nigeria's failure to reach next year's World Cup as a potentially decisive factor in the Africa Cup of Nations clash between the sides on Saturday night in Fez.
Tunisia won nine and drew one of their 10 games without conceding a goal to qualify for the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Nigeria finished their group second behind South Africa and fluffed the chance in November to advance to an intercontinental play-off next March with a defeat to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the African play-off final.
"Tunisia had a very good World Cup qualifying campaign, that's a fact," said Chelle on the eve of the Group C match at the Stade de Fes.
"Now, it's one match. It's a match that's happening with another opponent in a different context."
Trabelsi, enjoying a second spell as national team boss, concurred. "In my opinion, every tournament has its own reality. Of course, the World Cup is a very important and significant competition.
"But we don't focus on these things. We focus on the pitch, the quality of play, the opponent's style of play and the team as a whole. We don't focus on individual situations."
Nigeria won their opening game in Fez 2-1 against Tanzania. Tunisia swept past Uganda 3-1 in Rabat to set up a clash that could determine the winner of the pool.
Chelle, who took over as Nigeria boss in January, said his players had digested the disappointment of the defeat to the DRC. He added there was no need for an inferioty complex.
"We're in the Africa Cup of Nations and so what happened before, happened before.
"I am focused on what's happening now. What's happening now is that we have a match against Tunisia, and we're focused on that match.
"Tunisia are going to give it their all because they're a good team, and we're going to give it our all because we're a good team too.
"Hopefully we'll come back victorious from this match."
Nigeria boss Chelle urges squad to outdo Cup of Nations feats in Cote D'Ivoire
Just before the opening game against Tanzania, Chelle urged his troops to surpass the exploits of Nigeria's 2023 Africa Cup of Nations squad.
Those players reached the final in Cote d'Ivoire but lost 2-1 to the hosts who saw off Chelle's Mali side in the last eight.
As part of the plan to motivate the squad, Nigeria's football supremos have backed a move allowing former internationals mingle with the squad.
"It's very important for them to to be with us in the group," said Nigeria skipper Wilfred Ndidi.
"And not just be with us but also speak highly of us and give us the confidence."
The 29-year-old, who has played for Nigeria since 2015, added: "When the ex-internationals speak well of the team, it gives everyone more confidence in the team because the players when they were growing up looked up to these players
"So now they're in a different phase of their life, I think all the team needs is just encouragement, positive encouragement."
In the pool's other match on Saturday night, Tanzania take on Uganda.
The top two from each of the six pools advance to the last-16 knockout stages with the four best third-placed teams.
The final takes place on 18 January at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat.
