Nigeria’s Super Eagles will today at the U.J Esuene Stadium, Calabar, battle the Harambee Stars of Kenya in one of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for Brazil 2014. The Coach Stephen Keshi-tutored side which is still basking in the euphoria of their victorious outing at AFCON 2013, where they emerged champions after 19 years of waiting, goes into today’s game with the advantage of being group leaders.
Nigeria leads Group F with four points following a 1-0 victory over Namibia and a 1-1 draw against Flames of Malawi in Blantyre. Namibia is second in the group with three points following a 1-0 victory over Kenya and a loss to Super Eagles. Malawi is third with two points after playing 0-0 and 1-1 draws against Kenya and Nigeria respectively, while Kenya is last in the group with just a point after playing a goalless draw with Malawi.
Super Eagles has met their Kenyan opponents four times in the last ten years with the Eagles winning all the matches. They recorded a 1-0 victory against the East Africans in a friendly match in 2007, defeated them 3-0 and 3-2 respectively over the two legs of qualifying matches for South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup in 2009, and recorded an impressive 3-0 defeat of the Harambee Stars in a friendly match in 2011.
Although going by the above record, one could say that the Super Eagles will have an easy ride over their opponents, but considering that there are no more minnows in African football, coupled with the fact that the team boosts of a good tactician in Belgianborn Adel Amrouche, it becomes difficult to write off the ambitious Kenyans. Amrouche, who was recently appointed coach of Harambee Stars, is not new to African football having been credited with turning around Burundian football after about four years of being in charge of the country’s national team known as the ‘Swallows’.
A victory today over Kenya would increase the Super Eagles points to seven and solidify their position in the group, while any upset by the visitors would increase their points to four and this will help build up their confidence ahead of the return leg in Nairobi. Aside the aforementioned, any slip will put pressure on the Super Eagles to win all their remaining matches to be assured of a ticket to Brazil.
In today’s encounter, Keshi will not have the luxury of the services of team captain, Joseph Yobo and another six players from the team that won the Nations Cup. Though he will still enjoy the services of most members of the victorious AFCON team with few additions, Keshi hopes the squad will put pressure on the Harambee Stars and grab the maximum points available in today’s match.
Meanwhile, AFCON 2013 final goal hero, Sunday Mba, has assured Nigerians that the Super Eagles will record a convincing victory over the Harambee Stars. According to Mba, the team has put the Nations Cup victory behind them and is now focused at grabbing one of the continental tickets for the 2014 World Cup. Speaking ahead of the match, he noted that they will not underrate their opponents because there are no more minnows in African football.
“We are convinced that we are going to grab the maximum points in today’s encounter because the spirit in camp is very high and we are all roaring to go, but we are not going to underrate our opponents.
“They have some excellent players and they just appointed a new coach, so I do expect a difficult game from them, but we are capable of containing any threat they would pose,” he said. Also speaking on the match, captain of Harambee Stars, Dennis Oliech, said he is confident that his team can surprise the Super Eagles before their home crowd in Calabar.
According to him, pressure will be on the Super Eagles as the current African champions to post a good performance and maintain their ratings at international football, which his team can latch on to defeat the Super Eagles.
“The pressure will be on Nigeria especially having won the Africa Cup of Nations trophy. We will go into the match as underdogs. Everybody will be looking at how Nigeria will perform, this being their first competitive match after 2013 AFCON final.
“We have prepared well for this encounter and the team spirit is high, especially after we beat Libya last month in Tunisia. We just need to maintain the same momentum and spirit. We can shock them. “We are no longer the underdogs we used to be referred to in the past and besides there is a new fighting spirit flowing in our camp which makes it possible we can record an upset in today’s encounter,” he concluded.
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