Daily Trust (Abuja)

Nigeria: Nwosu Writes Off Eagles' AFCON Foes

Photo: Aliyu Adekunle
The Super Eagles of Nigeria in a match against Namibia in Calaba

Former Golden Eaglets' coach, Henry Nwosu said Super Eagles have nothing to fear over their 2013 AFCON group opponents.

The Africa Cup of Nations draws done in Durban, South Africa on Wednesday by CAF pitched Nigeria in Group C alongside Cup holders, Zambia, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.

Nwosu dismissed the trio as no threat insisting that we will have ourselves to blame if we failed to qualify from the relatively fair group.

"It's a good one for us but we must not see the opponents as walk over or teams we can leisurely beat.

"I quite agree they're beatable if we work extremely hard.

"Zambia are title holders but down their spines they believe Nigeria are a strong football nation.

"Nothing to fear against the other two foes, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.

"We'll blame ourselves if for any reason we don't qualify ahead of other opponents," said the former Nigerian player to supersport.com.

However, Nwosu will want massive repair work done on the Eagles' backline even as he declined to set a mark for the nation's campaigners at the biennial football showpiece.

"Let's start the competition first before setting the mark. Of course, the 16 teams are in South Africa for the title.

"I believe Keshi knows what to do to raise a squad that will gun for laurel but suffice to chip in that some areas need to be fortified especially the defence.

"We have abundant quality players in the midfield and attack. What needs to be done is test their skills and form a solid side that will achieve positive results," said the former ACB player.

The 2013 AFCON starts next January and Nigeria will be gunning for her third title.

  • Comment

Copyright © 2012 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Comments Post a comment

InFocus

Afcon: Burkina, Nigeria Write Each Other Off

picture

Former Golden Eaglets' coach Henry Nwosu says the Super Eagles have nothing to fear from their 2013 Afcon foes, but the coach of Burkinabes' Stallions coach, Paul Put, dismisses ... Read more »