9th October, 2014
Sudan’s long-serving coach Mohamed Abdallah a.k.a. Mazda has warned that Nigeria’s Super Eagles should forget winning Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match in Khartoum.
Abdallah said they will be fighting for their own lives in front of their partisan fans after they lost their opening qualifiers against South Africa and Congo last month.
“We must fight to get a win against Nigeria because another defeat will end our chances of qualifying for the tournament in Morocco,” SuperSport.com quoted the highly-experienced coach.
Captain of the Nigerian team, goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama also foresees that the Eagles are going on a difficult terrain which they know nothing of. According to the Lille of France player, “we should expect the Sudanese to fight at their backyard because they are playing at home. The game will be difficult because we don’t know anything about the team. I expect the Sudanese to fight for their pride as they had lost two of their matches. My prayer is that no matter how difficult the game may be, we should come out with the three points at stake.”
CSKA Moscow forward Ahmed Musa said the Eagles will go for broke against Sudan on Saturday and then four days later in Nigeria.
“We know we are not in the position we ought to be in the group, we are battle ready to give our best to get victory in our next game against Sudan away, then will come back to host them and play for another victory,” Musa promised.
The Eagles are third on Group A table with just a point from two games and well behind Congo and South Africa, who have recorded six and four points, respectively.
The African champions therefore find themselves in a must-win situation in their next qualifying game on Saturday in Sudan.
Both countries have clashed 11 times and Nigeria have won six of these meetings, drawn four times and lost once to the Sudanese.
The only Nigeria loss to Sudan was in 1963, when they fell 4-0 in a 1964 Nations Cup qualifier, while the last meeting was in a friendly in 2008 which Nigeria won 2-0.
Nigeria ran away 4-0 winners on their last visit to Sudan in a 2002 World Cup qualifier 13 years ago with Yakubu Aiyegbeni grabbing a brace.