Nigeria forward Julius Aghahowa is confident his side can overcome their lack of goals to beat local rivals Ghana in the African Nations Cup quarter-final on Sunday.

"We will overpower them," the back-flipping teenager predicted to onefootball.com.

"There has always been a rivalry between the two countries because we have been playing against each other for a long time," added the Shakhtar Donetsk striker. "It's going to be a difficult match because we both play a similar kind of game."

After successive goalless draws, Ghana reached the last eight when two late goals gave them a dramatic victory over Burkina Faso and second place in Group B.

"We know how they play," Aghahowa said. "We have watched them and we have played them a lot of times. We know the tactical approach we are going to use and I think we are going to win.

"Their defence is very strong, but we will watch videos of them and see how to break them down. It's going to be an interesting match."

Nigeria are yet to concede a goal in the tournament, but have only scored twice themselves, both coming from Aghahowa. The 19-year-old, though, insists the lack of goalmouth action is an indication of the growing maturity of African football.

"We have to secure our own net before we can attack," said Aghahowa. "Now we have qualified for the quarter-finals, we can start to focus on attack.

"You can see from this tournament that things have changed. Now the defences are strong and everybody is cautious. If you score one goal in a match, most teams are able to defend it."

But the suspicion remains that Super-Eagles coach Shuaibu Amodou has not settled on a first choice striking line-up.

He began the first game of the tournament with a front three of Yakubu Alyegbeni, Victor Agali and Aghahowa wide on the right, then replaced Alyegbeni with Kanu.

By the third game, against Liberia, Aghahowa had been moved into a central role, with Kanu playing just off him and Finidi George and Garba Lawal providing the width from midfield.

"I have played in a lot of positions for the national team," Aghahowa explained. "With the junior side I began on the right and I played at centre-forward and I played on the left, so I am used to playing in a lot of positions, but I prefer playing in the middle."