Former Democratic Republic of Congo captain Gabriel Zakuani says the Super Eagles will not win the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations even if they qualify for the competition later this month.
The Super Eagles, who are currently top of Group L need just one point from their remaining two games in the qualifiers against neighbours Benin Republic and Lesotho to secure a place in Cameroon 2021.
Gernot Rohr’s side would have already booked a place in the AFCON finals had they beat Sierra Leone at home last November.
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Th three-time African champions let slip a 4-0 lead to the Leone Stars, who salvaged a dramatic 4-4 draw with two goals in the last ten minutes.
“At this moment, I don’t quite feel they are ready because champions will not give away four-goal leads, so I don’t expect them to win,” Zakuani told a special edition of the BBC’s Sport Africa TV programme.
“I feel like it has come too soon for them to win it. [It’s time] for them to just be there, compete and then push on again.”
Nigeria will travel away to Benin on Saturday, March 27 , before hosting Lesotho in the final qualifying fixture at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos on March 30.
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COMMENTS
How can someone just open their dirty mouth and authoritavely say something like this…soccer is a game of 11 men against 11 anything can happen….all these haters of Naija. They know we have alot of players doing well now hence the psychological warfare if you can’t match… France lost to Finland so that means France is not ready for Euro 2021 sometimes in football there will be upsets and surprises but that’s the beauty of the game.
I will not argue with him,with the way our coach is going with invitation of players and his game management,it’s very possible we may not win it, quality of players is another factor, having a player in d mould of semi ajayi that looses week in week out as a CB/DM is another worry,omeruo is playing in lower league,Collins doesn’t make the team in his second division club,shehu Abdullahi is in second division in turkey,these names should not be in our tram for now,if we are planning to the nation’s cup.seems quota system has raised it’s ugly head again in our national team. but as for me,I have prepared my mind that we are not winning the nation’s cup in 2021.qualifying the world cup might take a miracle.
When zambia won theirs in 2012 how many big names did they parade????
Pls if u can’t speak good about our present SE just stay put….
Allow our boys to player whereever they want….
Our able coach will hand-pick them and assemble them….
Tankiu….
:::::SHALOM:::::
U dont need to corroborate that guy stupidity, the mission is to qualify for now , after that every team go bk nd prepare to win the nations cup , u sabi book na
Baalam hired Balak to curse the children of israel but his effort became futile.
Whoever hired u to spew this thrash against the only succeeding team presently in the whole country(nigeria), & without fear u start casting spel on our boys, wishing them badluck & hardluck indirectly, i pray whatever u & ur master wish our boys will surely bounce back to u.
Enemy of progress concentrate with ur mediocre country.
U wan kom tek panadol for our headache?
It’s just few that are TRAITORS not all & their days are numbered.
Respect us biko.
I love my country & our national team so don’t ever in ur dream or anywhere vomit this rubbish against our SE again.
We’re down but we’re not out.
The downfall of a man doesn’t mark the end of his life.
When there’s life, there’s hope.
A true Nigerian is never a PERSIMIST quot me anywhere.
We still have hope both in our country & national team.
It’s only a fool that billions of words won’t be enough. But i know u are wise hence a word is enough for u.
::SHALOM::
I am not comfortable with Semi Ajayi.Nevertheless,i pray that the team gets the job done irrespective of who gets to play.
@ Micheal if they win then go and die. Cameroon Won nation’s cup when their team was not even the best. Even the Algeria that won the last one d, did anybody expect it? Don’t know why some of you have to put hatred in all your things just cos u did not like the coach or cos he didn’t do your bidding by inviting your favourite players. mtcheeeew
If he talk about how the team is playing or set up in general then some people might see some points in what hes trying to say, but emphasising on a single match was an error. Germany is still firm favourite in anything competition they enrol in at the moment, but guess what ? they lost at home to NORTH MACEDONIA 2 days ago ( Yes NORTH MACEDIONIA 1-2) Would you then say Germany can not play for the coming EURO CUP? So hes got no point with his comment.
Nevertheless, we`ve got so many good young players nowadays and i believe the team should be doing better than how they are doing at the moment, I dont wanna blame anybody though, but something dont seem right with that team ( My Opinion)
It always feels like they will fall apart if they play against good and strong.
teams.
Have you seen these guys ETEBO, EZE, NDIDI, IHENACHO, ARIBO, ONUACHU, OSINMEH, ONYEKURU, IWOBI, etc Playing in their clubs lately? But their playing in the National Team is not that convincing, ( My opinion though, and I may be wrong )