Super Eagles Interim Coach, Austin Eguavoen, has revealed that he will introduce some of the players that have not featured in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Nigeria’s line up for the last Group D match against Guinea Bissau on Wednesday.
Eguavoen, whose team sealed a last 16 spot on Saturday through a 3-1 victory over the Falcons of Sudan, said after yesterday’s light training in Garoua that he would rest some players and give others chance in the tournament.
Nigeria has already qualified for the round of 16 of the ongoing AFCON and needs a draw with Guinea Bissau to win Group D and remain in Garoua for iEguavoen has deployed only 14 players from his 27-man squad in Nigeria’s two games so far. Earlier yesterday, Team Captain, Ahmed Musa, promised that the Super Eagles would do everything possible to win the competition for their supporters.
According to the Guardian, Musa, who came in as a substitute in Nigeria’s second group match against Sudan, which the Eagles won 3-1, told The Guardian yesterday shortly after their training that they are focused on the task ahead, which is to make Nigerians proud.ts round of 16 match.
“We cannot afford to fail in this tournament. I know that every country in this competition wants to win, but we are very hungry for the title.”
Musa also described as untrue report by a Nigerian sporting newspaper that there is disquiet in the team’s camp over bonuses. He said: “Nobody is talking about match bonuses for now. Our focus is to top the group and go on to win our quarterfinal game, semifinal and the final
“We cannot afford to fail in this tournament. I know that every country in this competition wants to win, but we are very hungry for the title.”
Musa also described as untrue report by a Nigerian sporting newspaper that there is disquiet in the team’s camp over bonuses. He said: “Nobody is talking about match bonuses for now. Our focus is to top the group and go on to win our quarterfinal game, semifinal and the final.
“We know we have the quality to win the title and we will work hard to achieve it. That is our ambition. I am sure it will come to pass.”
Meanwhile, the Pharaohs of Egypt and their Sudanese counterparts left Garoua yesterday morning for Yaoundé for their last group match, which will be played simultaneously with the match between Nigeria and Guinea Bissau on Wednesday.
While Egypt needs a draw in that game to finish second behind Nigeria, Sudan must beat the Pharaohs to stand the chance of making the round of 16.
Meanwhile,With Super Eagles of Nigeria already assured of next round qualification and topping Group D in Garoua, there are strong indications that the team’s likely opponents in the Round of 16 stage of the tournament are likely going to be the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
After another brilliant Super Eagles win against Sudan on Saturday night and a possible steamroll of Guinea-Bissau in Nigeria’s last game of Group D game on on Wednesday, the possibility of the three-time African champions to remain in the northern Cameroonian city to play Tunisia has become imminent.
THISDAY checks on the fixture last night showed that Nigeria, based on current standing in Group D, will be up against the third best finisher from either Group, B, C or F where Malawi, Sierra Leone and Tunisia are current standing as third teams.
The knockout phase is expected to start on January 23rd with Group A in Yaoundé and Group D in Garoua.
As at yesterday evening after two round of matches in the relevant Groups, Leone Stars of Sierra Leone who rallied to another draw against Elephants of Cote d Ivoire are placed third on the log with two points off the draw against Algeria too in the opening match.
In Group B, Malawi who secured a 2-1 win against Zimbabwe on Friday are pushed to third position with three points as well.
Tunisia also revived their hopes of qualification after the controversial lone goal loss to Mali with an emphatic 4-0 win against hapless Mauritania yesterday.
With three points, they are on same level with Malawi but a win in their last Group F match could jolly well make them retain the best third spot among the trio.
They can still move further up to the runner up place and change their path in the knockout phase. That depends on the scores from the group’s other game.
However, following the defeat of defending champions Algeria last night by Equatorial Guinea that condemned the North Africans to the bottom of Group E on just one point, the possibility of the Riyad Mahrez led squad finishing third is also possible. The Algerians will need to beat Ivory Coast by two goals in their last group match to finish on four points to stand a chance of qualifying.