22nd September, 2011
Super Eagles’ Chief Coach, Samson Siasia, has finally bowed to the Confederation of African Football, CAF, to play the 8 October Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Guinea by 2 p.m.
There have been complaints that the 2 p.m. fixed by CAF for the cracker was not convienent for the Eagles whose bulk of players will be coming from Europe. Even the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, had initially expressed disapproval with the timing. Siasia has agreed that the 2 p.m. kick off time won’t be a problem for his team, adding that the match will hold whether it is convenient for his players or not.
“We are going to play the match whether the time is convenient or not. If CAF says it is 2 p.m., I have no problem with that. What we need to do is to adjust our training programme. I do not see anything wrong with the time. We’ll surely play the match and win it,†said Siasia. The Super Eagles’ camp for the crucial match against the Guineans will be opened in Abuja on 3 October.
Meanwhile, 1st Vice President of the NFF, Chief Mike Okeke Umeh, has described the match against Guinea as a do-or-die affair stating clearly that the Guineans are no match for the Nigerian team.
Umeh told brilafm.net that Siasia would be given all the support he needs.
“We went to Guinea and we were beaten one nil, so now we want to pay them back in their own coin. Guinea is not strange to Nigeria and so we expect to defeat them by two goals because the Nations Cup would not be complete without Nigeria’s participation,†he said.
To Christian Chukwu, former coach of the Eagles, who is also a member of Technical Committee of the NFF, Nigeria cannot afford to lose the encounter.He added that anything short of a qualification ticket will be a disaster.
—Bimbo Ajayi & Sunday Akintoye