Super Eagles trio of Odion Ighalo, Alex Iwobi, and Semi Ajayi have arrived the Super Eagles camp ahead of the dead rubber 2019 AFCON qualifier against Seychelles on Saturday and the international friendly against the Pharaohs of Egypt on Tuesday next week, both billed for the Stephen Keshi Stadium Asaba, reports Completesports.com.
Iwobi and Ajayi pair have been in good form for their respective clubs, with the latter scoring his sixth goal in his last five games for Rotherham United in the English Championship.
The trio were later welcomed goalkeepers Francis Uzoho, Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Daniel Akpeyi , as well as home-based players; Ikouwem Utin, Ndifreke Effiong, and Valentine Ozornwafor on Monday ahead of the game.
Other invited players for the Super Eagles’ games are already in Lagos and will arrive Asaba on Tuesday.
John Ogu, Abdullahi, Wilfred Ndidi, Moses Simon, Chidozie Awaziem, Oghenekaro Etebo and Victor Osimhen are the players already in Lagos.
Three-time African champions, Super Eagles, have already qualified for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Egypt this summer.
By Johnny Edward
19 Comments
Should be 16 or 17 players in camp by Tuesday. I say 16 or 17 as John Ogu travelled with Henry Onyekuru in the same plane as reported by John on twitter with pictures.
Not bad, they can start training almost straight away. Under 23s also have 18 in camp today and three more arriving tomorrow.
They are taking it seriously enough
Nice.
The Super Eagles team B. These guys are the real deal.
Sorry, that comment was meant for the U23 team, not this one. My bad…
I’m looking forward to see who Genort Rohr will play on the right wing on Saturday ,I will also like to see the pair of ndidi and ajayi in the middle while Iwobi play 10.
I think either Ndidi or Ajayi should start against Seychelles definitely not both as they are very defence biased.Etebo is having a good season with a new coach at Stoke who does like him so Etebo is in form and better on the ball and also good going forward so should start alongside Iwobi and possibly Ndidi.Depends on the formation but in the absence of Kalu and Victor Moses Simon Moses should start from the right.Musa and Ighalo in attack.So i think the line up should be as below,
GK.Ezenwa DF.Omeruo,Balogun,Ekong,Collins. MD.Etebo,Ndidi,Iwobi. ATT.Musa,Ighalo,Simon Moses.
Semi has been more consistent since he was moved to midfield.
I think Etebo should come in the 2nd half for ndidi. Ndidi needs a little rest.
Bro the height of both Ajayi and Ndidi will make midfield unbalanced. so, I think Etebo with either of them will be good to go.
unbalanced ke..? Never heard of that before @ Ree. Pls explain further, How does height make a team unbalanced…?
Eagles Landing………
very good iwobi future captain. midfield starters iwobi ndidi ajayi. and etebo 2nd hlf
Iwobi has been exemplary in his response to national duty. This has to be commended n greatly appreciated. You can tell Iwobi plays for Nigerian fans, to bring joy to majority of Nigerians so deprived of good life by these criminal politicians in offices. He never seem to be bothered by the very difficult atmosphere concerning management in Nigeria in general n NFF in particular. All he wants is just to make Nigerians happy. Somehow over here, this is why some silly racist/ envious fake arsenal fans love to hate him. On the contrary, we have a supposedly captain who always find excuses to choose match to play for Nigeria. Even if he were to be a Lionel Messi, I as a manager, would have dropped him long long time ego. Even with him as captain, we had a bad world cup last year, played a God forsaken brand of football. Anyone not motivated by the joy they bring to Nigerian fans to play for Super Eagles should be dropped,we don’t need them. Not now that loads of very good players are yearning to Don the green white green.
_deo’s Nig vs Seychelles Preview_
I think it is a runaway conclusion that Super Eagles will steamroll Seychelles in the dead rubber match on Friday 22 at home.
If I map out the form of each team leading up to the match with high point (wins),low points (loss) and mid point (draw) in their respective 6 matches, you have:
The Super Eagles: Low –> High –> High –> High –> Mid –> Mid points.
The Pirates: Mid –> Low –> Low –> Low –> Mid –> Low points.
So from Rohr’s Eagle’s last 6 matches (from the infamous 2:1 loss to Argentina), our Super Eagles have amassed 11 points scoring 12 goals while conceding 5.
Seychelles on their part have only taken 2 points from their last 6 matches (include the famous 0:0 draw against South Africa), scoring 2 goals while conceding 23.
Without being arrogant, this match should be a stroll in the park for the Super Eagles with the opportunity of scoring more goals than they did in the first match and also an opportunity to give players like Semi Ajayi and Paul Onuachu long playing time.
_Nigeria VS Egypt Preview_
Chelsea loanee Victor Moses – now retired – was in the form of his life in the 2016 two-legged Afcon qualifiers against Egypt to which Samson Siasia could only inspire his side to gain 1 point out of a possible 6 as the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the subsequent African Cup of Nations – the second miss in a row.
Had Victor Moses efforts cross the line in either leg, the story may well have been different; it didn’t and the Egyptians not only qualified for the Afcon, they also maintained an impressive recent head-to-head record against us.
In fact, if I map out the last 6 matches both sides have played against each other (according to 11v11.com) with high point (wins),low points (loss) and mid point (draw), you have:
Nig vs Egypt: Mid —> Low —> Mid —> Low —> Mid —> Low points
Egypt vs Nig: Mid —> High —> Mid —> High —> Mid —> High points.
So, from the last 6 matches (in this sample) between the two teams, Nigeria earned 3 points out of a possible 18 points.
The Egyptians, on their part have amassed 11 points out of a possible 18 points from the 6 matches in this sample (source:www.11v11.com/teams/nigeria/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/Egypt)
** I note that 11v11.com did not include the 12-April-2012 Egypt vs Nigeria friendly in their sample; Stephen Keshi’s side lost 3:2 to further exemplify Egypt’s recent dominance against Nigeria.**
I will be hoping that Rohr takes this match very seriously and field a very strong side so that we can begin to buck the trend of Egyptian domination.
Key Player: I will be looking at Iwobi to fill the void left by Victor Moses in this match between the Eagles and the Pharaohs – both sides expected to have strong outings in this summer’s AFCON.
Gone are the days when SE players stroll into camp on Thursday for a match that will be played on Saturday.
True….
all i knw and what had been done. 9ja and egypt have played 17 times, with 9ka winning 7 times while egypt winning 5 times and draw 5 times. we have upper hand against egypt. while iwobi is our next jay jay that was missing, and he is the attacking midfielder because of his dribbling and creativity and pace. as far as nigeria is concern iwobi will only play #no10
So, we will have the upper hand in Nigeria b’cos of home advantage. If we meet them in Egypt, I hope we don’t have the lower hand.
At the end of the day, its a warm up match and designed to test out players for the final squad. Several Egyptian stars are already rested for the match including Salah, they are bringing a “young squad”. Nigeria also will not field its first team, rather subs and fringe players with only a few SE regulars possibly those needing match time like Balogun, Moses Simon and Uzoho amongst the second string.
I will not take anything out of the result, rather, the players performance is key.