AFCON 2023
*Oliseh warns South Africa’s Bafana Bafana dangerous
Duro Ikhazuagbe
Former Green Eagles Captain, Dr. Olusegun Odegbami, has tipped Nigeria to play the final of the 34th Africa Cup of Nations with host Côte d’Ivoire on February 11.
Both Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire are in the Last Four stage of the AFCON 2023 and will play South Africa and DR Congo respectively.
Odegbami who won the Africa Cup of Nations gold and two bronze medals in seven years of energetic and diligent service to Nigeria when the tournament was then known as Green Eagles, had predicted even before the end of the group stage matches that the two West African countries would play in the final scheduled for the Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara.
“I said long before the finals that we would be champions of Africa. Many people thought I was just sounding off. Now, they are seeing their light. Everyone appears to believe now that the Super Eagles can do it.
“Now that we are in the semi-finals, I am seeing that we are going to be playing the host nation, Cote d’Ivoire in the Final. We are beating South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire will beat Democratic Republic of Congo. The stage is set for a classic Final match on February 11, stressed the ex international fondly called Mathematical in his days with the senior national team.
Even as Odegbami addressed the Super Eagles at their Pullman Hotel in Abidjan on the eve of their encounter with Guinea Bissau (final match of the group phase), some persons who were there did not quite share in his conviction that the Eagles would be champions. Today, many have been ‘converted’, and the 71-year- old legend says he is happy that things are going according to his expectations.
Odegbami was the star of the 12th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, hosted by Nigeria in 1980, scoring two excellent goals in a Final that saw Nigeria spank the Fennecs of Algeria 3-0 at the National Stadium, Lagos.
During that tournament, he scored three goals, just as he did at the 1978 finals in Ghana, where Nigeria picked up bronze medals after Tunisia abandoned the classification match as a result of Baba Otu Mohammed’s equaliser.
He also played at the 1976 edition in Ethiopia, where the Green Eagles finished third behind Morocco and Guinea – the only AFCON played on league basis till date.
However, another former Super Eagles Captain, Sunday Oliseh warned yesterday that South Africa will be dangerous when both teams clash in an AFCON semifinal Wednesday.y
Oliseh said Bafana Bafana are dangerous when they break forward and in captain Ronwen Williams they have a proven match winner, whose penalty kick heroics mean the Super Eagles cannot afford for the semifinal to drag into a penalty shootout.
“South Africa are compact and dangerous when they go forward,” Oliseh said on a Channels TV programme yesterday.
“When they go forward, they can hurt us. And we should not allow the game to go to a penalty shootout because of the aura around the heroics of the goalkeeper. He saved four penalties and the Super Eagles must have watched that,” concludes Oliseh a former head coach of the Nigerian senior national team.
