Keshi: Eagles Must Beat Namibia

With three days to go in the countdown to the 2014 World Cup qualifying match between Nigeria and Namibia in Calabar, Cross River State, on Sunday, Super Eagles’ coach, Stephen Keshi, has told his players that there is no excuse for failure in the crucial encounter.

The former Eagles’ skipper said even though he has no match information about the Namibian team, he and his team have been condemned to win the match.

“It is true that we don’t have any information about our opponents but that should not be an excuse when we play against them on Sunday. We must ensure that we do our best to win the match despite this shortcoming,” said Keshi.

He said: “This is a crucial match being a World Cup qualifier and we cannot afford to lose it. Our priority is to play well and win the match and not let the lack of information about the team deny us victory against them.”

Meanwhile, former Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, James Peters, has advised the Eagles’ coach to always approach the NFF for information whenever the team have an international match.

“The coach cannot keep on complaining that he does not have information on the Eagles’ opponents every time they want to play. All he needs to do is to go to the NFF and get adequate information on their opponents,” he said.

“That was how previous handlers of the team used to tackle the situation. They would come to the NFF prior to any international match to seek necessary information about their opponents in order to know the best way to handle them,” said Peters.

—Bimbo Ajayi