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Nigeria raise full house
By
Garry Chirwa - 02-06-2003 |
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Basking in the glory sweeping aside fellow continental heavyweights Cameroon 3-0 in the finals of the four-nations LG Cup on Sunday, Nigeria Football Association (NFA) said on Monday the Super Eagles will not take their foot off the accelerator against the Flames this Saturday in the Africa Nations Cup qualifier.
NFA’s secretary general Taiwo Ogunjobi said in a telephone interview from Lagos that the Eagles are not underestimating the predominantly youthful Malawian squad.
“We are not thinking too little of Malawi. Football is funny...quite funny, more especially in the modern times in which miracles do happen more frequently. Even if Malawi had brought a reserve side, we would have still assembled the best squad which fortunately is available.
“The LG Cup success is a very big boost, but we are not holding Malawi as cheap opposition. We want to give out our best on Saturday and then focus our attention on Brazil whom we meet on June 11,” said Ogunjobi.
The NFA spokesman added that Saturday’s match is crucial for Nigeria because a win will put them in a strong position to qualify from the group.
Asked if their big name stars like Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu who play in the English Premiership and Julius Aghahowa from Ukraine will be available for the clash having missed the game against Cameroon, the cautious Ogunjobi said: “The cheese and the hot chocolate is on the menu, they are all here and it is important that they should play but that should be left to the coaches to decide.”
He said the only doubtful starter is Inter Milan’s forward Obafemi Martins who is recovering from an injury.
Meanwhile, the Flames arrived in Nigeria on Monday and leader of delegation Hastings Kapenuka said the early arrival might help them acclimatise to the environment.
“We have quite a number of new players and obviously the home fans might set the intimidation wheel spinning and the players need more time to get used,” said Kapenuka.
Nigeria lost 3-2 to Jamaica in a strength testing game in Kingstone last week before beating perennial African rivals Ghana 2-1 and Cameroon 3-0 to with the LG Cup.
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