Duro Ikhazuagbe
Nigeria’s youthful Super Eagles stars under the watch of Augustine Eguavoen will be put through acid test this evening when they confront seven-time champions Egypt in the opening match of Group D of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Garoua, Cameroon. Kick off time is 5pm.
With 60 per cent of the 30,000-seating capacity of the Stade Roumdé Adjia in the northern Cameroonian town of Garoua taken by traveling fans of both countries, fireworks are going to be aplenty with all eyes focused on Liverpool’s talisman, Mohamed Salah, to make a difference.
Ahead of the game, Mo Salah refused to engage in mind games with Ahmed Musa who poked jibes at him that Super Eagles have even more dangerous players than the Liverpool talisman with cult followings in his native Egypt.
Going down memory lane, the Pharaohs with their record seven titles in the African football showpiece have only swept pass the Super Eagles on just two occasions in 1963 and 2010! On both occasions, only the first victory was comprehensive (6-3). They came from behind to tame the Eagles 3-1 in the city of Benguela when Angola hosted in 2010.
In all other confrontations at the Africa Cup of Nations, the Eagles have had the upper hand over the Pharaohs.
On their march to victory in 1980, the Eagles sailed past the Pharaohs 1-0 in a group phase clash in Ibadan, and four years later, following a pulsating 2-2 draw in a semi final match in Bouake (Cote d’Ivoire), Nigeria won on penalties to reach the final against Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions.
In 1990, a lone goal by Rashidi Yekini consigned the Pharaohs to defeat in a group phase match in Algiers, and in 1994, both teams battled to a scoreless draw at the Stade Chadli Zouiten in Tunis.
All that is history now.
Nigeria without two of the country’s best performers in front of goalkeepers: Victor Osimhen and 2019 AFCON top scorer, Odion Jude Ighalo, the battle appears to favour the Pharaohs parading English Premier League leading scorer Salah.
But with the sack of German gaffer, Gernot Rohr, barely weeks to the kick off of the tournament, interim coach Eguavoen opened a window for those youths previously in the shadows of Osimhen and Ighalo to step forward and be counted.
In this group are the likes of former U17 World Cup star Taiwo Awoniyi. He’s expected to lead the line and reproduce some of his potency from which German Bundesliga club Union Berlin is benefitting, with Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho and Czech Republic -based Peter Olayinka also on the line. Skipper Ahmed Musa and Samuel Chukwueze hit target in the training match with Cameroonian top club, Cotonsport Garoua on Friday. There is also Greece –based Henry Onyekuru and former Olympics star Sadiq Umar as possibilities in the frontline.
Even in the absence of midfield linchpin, Oghenekaro Etebo, Wilfred Ndidi has proved to be a dependable enforcer while former U17 World Cup-winning Captain Kelechi Nwakali is expected to stamp his authority in the playmaking role this evening.
To give Maduka Okoye the needed shield are the backline rocks of Tyrone Ebuehi, Chiedozie Awaziem Kenneth Omeruo and Zaidu Sanusi.
A win for Nigeria will certainly be the tonic Eagles need to set their dream of a fourth African title on course. It is not mission impossible!
