Femi Solaja with agency report
Following a superlative performance of Super Eagles in the opening Africa Cup of Nations Group D match against Egypt last Tuesday, former Ghanaian International, Asamoah Gyan, has tipped Nigeria as the team to beat at the on-going tournament in Cameroon.
Super Eagles, against all odds outshined seven-time champions, Egypt, in the opening group match with a lone goal scored by Kelechi Iheanacho and Liverpool forward, Mohamed Salah was kept silent all through the match.
Having watched all the teams play in the opening round matches of the tournament, the former Ghana Black Stars player singled out Super Eagles as the most outstanding team so far in the 24-team tournament.
“Yes, as at today Nigeria stands out as the team with the will to conquer all oppositions going by what happened in the match against Egypt,” he noted while on set as a guest analyst with SuperSport yesterday.
“Every other potential winner of the tournament seems to be playing with too much caution and this explains why most of the matches have not been impressive. But when you look at Nigeria, they showed character of a potential champion considering the way they dominated Egypt all through the 90 minutes.
“Nigeria deserved to score more goals in the match but they were unlucky in the final cut. This was a team that had its pre-tournament challenge as they were unable to have some of their best forwards for the tournament and playing a strong team like Egypt in the opening match was an acid test and they excelled,” he remarked.
Although Nigeria is not the only team with a win so far in the tournament, the former Sunderland striker observed that hosts, Cameroon were too cagey in the opening match and were lucky to get the two penalty kicks against Burkina Faso in the opening match of the competition.
“Well, they need to improve from the next match because they were under pressure to perform at home while Senegal and Morocco also had to score late goals against Zimbabwe and Ghana respectively.
“But when you look at how Nigeria imposed themselves on Egypt, other teams are yet to show character and one only hoped they maintained same tempo as the tournament progresses,” he pointed.
Cameroon however roared in into the knockout stage last night after hammering Ethiopia 4-1.
