Sports
Super Eagles can only play casual warm-up games ahead of AFCON —Eguavoen
Super Eagles interim head coach, Austin Eguavoen has revealed that the team can only play casual warm-up games ahead of their Nations Cup participation.
The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is set to hold between 9 January and 6 February in Cameroon, with Nigeria battling for the title alongside 23 other nations.
Eguavoen, who recently released a 28-man list of players to execute the mission, admitted that there was no time to play top friendly matches to prepare the team ahead of the tournament.
In an interview on Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) TV published on YouTube, Eguavoen said members of the squad are already used to each other and can deliver on the assignment.
“There is a team on the ground, this team is ready to compete any time any day when called upon. And yes the time is quite short we all know that,” said the former international.
“With the quality of players we have I don’t think we will struggle but the only thing is there won’t be time for any friendlies because that’s when you actually assess your team if they can actually do what the technical crew want.
Read Also: Eguavoen invites Osimhen, Dennis, 26 other Super Eagles stars for AFCON 2021
“As it is we just have to do what we have to do and in training sessions we can tell them how we want them to play and guide them.”
When asked if there would be no warm-up games at all, Eguavoen discarded his former thought and mentioned that there would be but casual friendlies.
“There would be (friendlies) but it won’t be as competitive as we want it.
“If there was that time where you have FIFA windows you can go for it 100 per cent regardless because you know you still have time before the tournament.
“But the tournament starts January 9th, I’m not saying there won’t be friendly games but it would be a very casual one,” he added.
The Super Eagles will be starting their campaign with a match against the Pharaohs of Egypt on 11 January before also facing Sudan and Guinea-Bissau in their other group games.
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