14 October 2008
Super Eagles defenders, Danny Shittu and Chidi Odiah insist they are not afraid to come up against any of the African continent's bigger sides including Cameroun and Egypt as the next round of qua-lifiers for the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup beckons.
Both players, who spoke to Complete Sports a few hours after the conclusion of last Saturday's Group Four encounter against Sierra Leone believe the Super Eagles can beat the best the continent can offer in terms of opposition and don't mind the prospect of coming up against any team in the next round of qualifiers.
"I'm not afraid of any team. None of us are scared of any team in Africa or in the world as a matter of fact," declared the Bolton Wanderers centre-half.
"We have a team that can beat any team and our results testify to this. We have won all our matches and that's enough to prove that we're good."
A cross-section of football pundits are however of the opi-nion that the level of opposition the Super Eagles have come up against so far in the qualifiers aren't tough enough to judge the actual strength of the national side and feel they might face a herculean task overcoming some of the continent's better teams in the next round.
Shittu is however of the opi-nion that none of the trio of South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone were weak oppositions.
"All the matches we have played so far were tough. The teams we met were not weak, but we were determined to get the results and that was what we did."
The draws for the next round will come up on Wednesday, Oc-tober 22 in Zurich, Switzerland, and Nigeria stands a good chan-ce of securing one of the five spots reserved for the continent's top seeds.
That scenario will rule out the possibility of coming up against the likes of Cameroun, Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana in the next round as the quartet are likely to be seeded judging from their performance in the qualifiers and their current standing in the world rankings, as well as their final positions at the end of the last Nations Cup in Ghana.
Odiah however, has no qualms regarding the national team's chances of coming up against the likes of Egypt, Cameroun, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire irrespective of what transpires on October 22 in Switzerland.
"It doesn't matter who we are grouped along with, whether it is Egypt, Ghana or Cote d'Ivoire. We don't fear anybody, but I'm sure they all fear us," declared the CSKA Moscow player.
"We are determined to play at the World Cup and I don't see anybody stopping us."
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