The Nigeria Pillar of Sports Chief Donatus Agu Ejidike has charged Nigerians to cheer the Super Eagles to victory as they confront the Pharaohs of Egypt in their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations Group D opener on Tuesday January 11th, 2022.
The Nigeria Pillar of Sports, Ejidike in a statement sounded that now is not the time to begin to criticize the Super Eagles formation or managerial composition rather football stakeholders and football ruling authority should rally support and encourage the players and the technical crew for them to excel and bring trophy to the country.
Ejidike noted that the crops of invited players have the wherewithal to crush their opponents considering the top flight football they all play in their various clubs.
He encouraged the Coach Augustine Eguavoen- led technical crew to play more of attacking football rather than defensive approach.
“It may not be too difficult for the Super Eagles to qualify from the group stage because the group tickets are a toss up between Nigeria and Egypt; the two that are among the most successful nations in African football history. Sudan and Guinea Bissau appear primed to compete for third position,” Ejidike observed.
”Nigerian players have a playing mentality, ‘ never say die until the bones are rotten’ if only we play typical Nigerian football styles which are either wing play or space marking styles. Nigeria is known to improve by every game and the likes of Tyronne Ebuehi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi and Samuel Chukwueze should be cohesive as none come close to matching Mohammed Salah’s prodigy.”
Ejidike warned Super Eagles against any North African team as the just concluded FIFA Arab Cup which ended last month in Qatar may have given North African qualifiers an added advantage at AFCON 2021.
”Time has come for Nigeria to prove her mettles in African football having won the competition thrice in 1980, 1994 and 2013 and also finished second on four occasions. They have ended in third place about eight times. They are still among the favourites with their awesome track record,” he added.
He noted that Nigeria made first appearance in 1963 when they were knocked out at the group stage in which case the country could be said to have, rather, a difficult history qualifying. They were banned once in 1998 withdrawn 4 times and didn’t qualify recently in 2012, 2015 and 2017.
”Nigeria is our country and sports, especially football is a strong apron-string binding us strongly together. Let us hail and cheer our own Super Eagles to victory as they trade tackles with Egypt on Tuesday.” The Nigeria Pillar of Sports, Ejidike advocated.
