The Black Stars of Ghana will host the Super Eagles of Nigeria on Friday, March 25 at the Cape Coast sports stadium, Ghana, and interim Technical Advisor of the Eagles, Augustine Eguavoen expects no easy ride for his side over what many believe to be a weak Black Stars that executed a poorest performance at the 2021 Afrca Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
At the tournament in Cameroon, Nigeria, though exited just in the Round of 16 stage after losing marginally by 1-0 to Tunisia, were a delight to watch during the group stages where they won all three games including victories over Sudan and Egypt. Ghana on the other side of the coin, lost to debutants Comoros as well as Morocco and managed a 1-1 draw with Gabon, exiting the tournament in the group stages.
Ghana has has been drawn to battle their perennial West African rivals in African football, Nigeria in search for a slot to be one of the five nations to represent Africa at the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals to be held in Qatar between November and December this year. Many football pundits believe that facing Nigeria at this time is just a mismatch considering the might of the Super Eagles currently as against that of the Black Stars.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ghanasportspage.com, interim Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles, Augustine Eguavoen stated, that regardless of Ghana’s current form, he expects a stiffer opposition from the Black Stars during the playoff against Nigeria. He admits that Ghana is a very strong team, and playing against Nigeria on any day will always be tough and tight.
“It’s going to be a very tough game and a tight one as well”, Eguavoen told ghanasportspage.com. “We have a lot of mutual respect for one another, and when Ghana play Nigeria, Nigeria play Ghana it’s always tough, it’s always tight. But you see, it’s going to boil down to we is trying to go there [Ghana], we will play everything we can try to win the game, in fact, both games but with no disrespect because Ghana is a very strong side individually and collectively, we will just go and fight and try to win the game”, he said.
Earlier this month, former Nigeria international Abdul Sule told ghanasportspage.com exclusively, that “The most important thing is that Africa must have good representation at the World Cup Qatar 2022 to further boost our result to ask for more slots for Africa”.
Abdul Sule believe that the best team between Ghana and Nigeria should qualify to represent Africa. “My advice is that we should remove all forms of sentiments and that fighting to play good football so that the best representatives will win and go to represent Africa”, he added.
Asked who he thinks, per current form deserves a place at the World Cup in Qatar between Ghana and Nigeria, Eguavoen responded with patriotic sentiment.
“There is no doubt in mind, I am in Nigeria, full blooded Nigerian and if you ask me such question I think, without missing words I think we deserve a place at the World Cup”, he said patriotically.
