Super Eagles’ Coach, Jose Peseiro, believes that beating Equatorial Guinea will set his team up for a great championship at the Africa Cup of Nations, which begins in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, tomorrow.
The Super Eagles arrived in Abidjan on Wednesday and set out preparing for the opening game against Equatorial Guinea on Sunday.
The team did no tactical training on Wednesday, as the coaches allowed the players to loosen up, but they returned to the Ecole Nationale De La Police training ground yesterday by 4.00 p.m. to continue plotting their strategy for Sunday’s game.
Speaking on their first training session in Abidjan, Peseiro said: “The training today was for recovery after the long trip, presentations, CAF meetings and the videos for everybody. Because of that we couldn’t do tactical and conditioning training to recover well for tomorrow’s practice.”
He described the AFCON as a difficult tournament that requires maximum concentration, especially when the opening game is against an Equatorial Guinea side that did better than the Super Eagles at the last edition of the competition.
He added, however, that the Super Eagles are condemned to win. To do that, he said: “We want to be 100 per cent focused, not only in training, in the meals, rest, and meetings. All the activities we must put our maximum focus.”
Peseiro acknowledged that there is no margin for errors in Super Eagles’ first two matches, which, he said, would determine if Nigeria would progress to the second round of the competition.
Peseiro was dealt a huge blow on the eve of the competition when two star players, Wilfred Ndidi and Victor Boniface, withdrew because of injury, but he said the team will cope well in their absence.
Ndidi’s replacement, Alhassan Yusuf, has already joined the group, while Boniface’s replacement, Terem Moffi, is expected to join the squad on Monday after his team’s game in the French Ligue One this weekend.
Kelechi Iheanacho, who could not join his mates in their training tour of Abu Dhabi due to injury, will team up with the squad on Sunday.
“We have contact with all their medical staff and they told us that the players will be 100 per cent in shape when they arrive to join us.
“Iheanacho has worked hard to recover and we have confidence that Leicester’s medical staff have done well for him. They have good materials, good equipment. They told us he will start training 100 per cent when he arrives.”
