10th October, 2012
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has told Stephen Keshi they expect his team to beat Liberia on Saturday and qualify for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
NFF’s Assistant Secretary General, Technical, Emmanuel Ikpeme, made the declaration in a chat with MTNFootball.com
Ikpeme, who led the advance party of the NFF to Calabar, said, “The federation has given the coach all he needs to give Nigerians a good result this weekend so there would be no room for excuses.
“No national team coach should wait for last minute permutations to qualify for any tournament. Every national team coach should win all his matches and that is what we expect from the Eagles.
“They should beat Liberia this weekend in Calabar and save us the headache of any mathematics as regards qualification.”
Last October, the Eagles failed to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup after they were held to a 2-2 draw by visiting Guinea in Abuja.
Coach Samson Siasia subsequently lost his job after he urged his players to go for a third goal when they were leading 2-1 only for them to leave their defence wide open for Guinea to launch a quick counter attack and score a crucial equaliser in stoppage time to eliminate Nigeria from the competition.
A 2-1 win over Guinea on that fateful day would have qualified Nigeria to the last AFCON.
Keshi’s contract is tied to a performance clause which stipulates he qualified Nigeria to the Nations Cup in South Africa and reach at least the last four of the biennial tournament.