Interim coach of the Super Eagles, Augustine Eguavoen, has lauded the technical ability of the invited home-based Eagles ahead of next month’s 2025 CHAN qualifiers against Ghana.
Eguavoen stated this after the team completed their first training session at the FIFA Goal Project Pitch in Abuja on Wednesday.
Recall that Ghana will host Nigeria in the first leg between 20th and 22nd December 2024, while the return leg will hold in Nigeria a week later.
The winner over two legs will earn a slot at the CHAN 2025, which will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
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In a chat with NFF TV, Eguavoen stated that he’s impressed with the technical qualities of the players.
“We are shortfall of two yesterday who joined today, and we are 35 now. It’s only the second training session. Two also left yesterday afternoon for their assignment, Plateau United players. We had an agreement with all the clubs that all the players will be released. Yes, we have quite a huge number, and we have visited league venues a lot.
“And more so, we have directed assistant coaches in the person of Fidelis Ilechukwu and Daniel Ogunmodede to watch games in the league. They saw a whole lot of players in the league, and I saw some in the league as well. And I also told some coaches who have not been able to watch their game live.
“If you compare the list that I had and the ones they gave to me by my assistant coaches, most of the players are on the same list. By recommendation, no, that’s not it. It’s been very impressive with only two sessions, and technically they are very good. We still have a lot of work to do because they are coming from different clubs, and we have to try to see how we can blend them now and make them play as one team.
“I think there is time enough to do that. We like to work hard and select the best players out of these groups that we have to face Ghana in December. We know how tough it is to play Ghana.
“And congratulations to Nigeria’s Flying Eagles because it was a tough one as well. Any category in which we meet the Ghanaian team is always very tough. All we pray for is luck. But for the game, we will go out there and work hard and develop strategies to ensure we are in the next CHAN.
3 Comments
Eguavoen if you are honest like Pep by always going for form and the best then you’ll succeed as a coach. I’m saying this because Eguavoen seems to have more information on local and foreign players than any Nigerian coaches has ever. And he’s been with the team for over 10 years. I hope he succeeds now that he seems to be impressing against all odds.
I will also like to commend the NFF for the early camping and the friendlies of SF against Desert Fox of Algeria. When we see good from The NFF let us not forget to acknowledge same way we criticise them. I will also hope NFF will pay the u20 boys their outstanding monies without delays because times are perilous in Nigeria.
Nigeria is a football power house in Africa but I don’t really know what is really wrong with our present generation of players. They don’t really want to make name for themselves. I think eguovoen should bring the best out of these players because that’s his job. Get them to know the nitty gritty of wearing the national team shirt as it was in their days. Blend the skillful and tactical home based players with the foreign based players with that same quality, a formidable team is born. Tell them to put pride aside and cultivate a winning mentality. We have quality players in this country and we should not be losing a single game or find it difficult to win games.he should look for his replacement,okocha replacement,amokachi’s replacement, oliseh’s replacement, finid’s replacement, Amunike’s replacement and so on. Get them to know how it used to be in your days, there are many zealous boys over there,looking for opportunities,fish them out,build a strong and formidable team for this country and earn our respect. Thanks!
I pray CAF appoint good referee for this qualifier. The referee that won’t bow to treat at ghana.
With good referee Nigeria will beat ghana home and away anytime any day.
God bless Nigeria.