Femi Solaja
Despite the absence of key stars like Victor Osimhen, Victor Boniface, William Troost-Ekong, Olaoluwa Aina, Taiwo Awoniyi and a host of others, Interim Super Eagles Head Coach, Finidi George, has said he hopes to lead the senior Nigerian team to a second victory against Mali tonight.
This is the second international friendly the ex-international will lead Super Eagles since he was appointed on an interim basis a fortnight ago.
Today, Finidi will also be missing the services of two Premier League stars Frank Onyeka and Calvin Bassey who were in Morocco for the first friendly with the Black Stars of Ghana.
Brentford midfielder Onyeka featured in the Eagles first win against Ghana while Bassey from Fulham has quit the team’s training camp after injury prevented him from seeing action in Morocco.
Despite these setbacks, Finidi insisted that he remains upbeat about another victory.
“We cannot at this time be dwelling on the injuries and absences that we have to cope with,” he maintained.
“Our intention has always been to win these two matches and then look forward to the World Cup qualifiers in June (against South Africa and Benin Republic). We are determined to keep up the momentum and sustain the winning mentality derived from beating the Black Stars.”
Incidentally, the last of Finidi George’s 62 caps for Nigeria came against the Eagles of Mali.
‘The Gazelle’ as he was fondly called was involved when on 9th February, 2002 the Super Eagles pipped host nation Mali in the city of Mopti 1-0 to win the bronze medal of the 23rd Africa Cup of Nations.
Mali signalled their readiness for this encounter with a 2-0 spanking of Mauritania also in Morocco on Friday.
TODAY
Mali v Nigeria
C’d’Ivoire v Uruguay
Uganda v Ghana
Senegal v Benin
England v Belgium
Germany v Netherlands
Egypt v Croatia
Slovenia v Portugal
France v Chile
Spain v Brazil
Algeria v S’Africa
Togo v Libya
Austria v Turkey
