‘We can’t afford to miss CHAN 2020’ – Amapakabo upbeat ahead Togo clash

Home-based Super Eagles coach Imama Amapakabo is not ruling out the possibility of his team reaching the 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN).

Despite the high mountain needed to be climbed, the coach is confident his side can overturn a 4-1 deficit in the second leg of their qualifying match against the Sparrow Hawks of Togo.

The Eagles would need to score three unreplied goals when they host the Hawks in Lagos this weekend to ascertain their place in the finals of CHAN 2020.

“We have a big job at hand, and I have been drumming it into the ears of the players that we cannot afford to fail. The Togolese won 4-1 on their home ground; nothing says we cannot do better on our own home ground,” Amapakabo told the NFF Media.

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“We have to be focused and determined. We must create chances and put them away, because we cannot afford not to be at the African Nations Championship,” he added.

After the 4-1 loss of the first leg, Amapakabo’s charges went on to lose again to the same Togo team at the WAFU/FOX Cup of Nations in Senegal.

The team have been training at the FIFA Goal Project, Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja since returning from Senegal.

Nigeria finished as first runners-up at the last edition of CHAN, staged by – and won by – Morocco early last year.

The winner over two legs between Nigeria and Togo will book a slot at next year’s edition, scheduled to hold in Cameroon in June 2020.

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