AFCON
AFCON 2023: Maximum point-seeking Super Eagles land in Agadir for São Tomé
Nigeria’s Super Eagles are seeking the maximum three points at stake as they land in Agadir, Southern Morocco for their matchday 2 encounter with Sao Tome and Principe in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The match will be the very first encounter of both teams. A win over Sao Tome will put the Super Eagles in the driver’s seat if Guinea Bissau fail to beat Sierra Leone in the corresponding fixture holding in Conakry, Guinea.
According to the communication department of the NFF, the Nigeria’s delegation to the Monday’s match landed in Agadir on Sunday morning.
The Air Peace airline’s Embraer 195 E2 which has flown the team to a number of match venues including from Morocco when they defeated Liberia in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Tangier, touched down at the Aeroport Agadir Almarissa at exactly 8.15am on Sunday, with a total of 25 players and technical and administrative crew.
The delegation was led by NFF 2nd Vice President, Mallam Shehu Dikko and also included the General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, a number of board members, a couple of NFF Management and Staff, a few stakeholders and some media representatives.
Having bagged all three points in their 2-1 defeat of Sierra Leone at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja on Thursday, the Eagles countenance another three points against ‘The Falcons and True Parrots’ at the Grand Stade Agadir, also known as Adrar Stadium, on Monday afternoon.
Head Coach Jose Peseiro said at the Aeroport Agadir Almarissa that the encounter against ‘The Falcons and True Parrots’ will bring the best out of his team as they seek to go top of the Group A table.
“We want to be the team at the top of the table, so we must fight hard against the opponents. Every match, we must commit ourselves fully to winning it. As I said earlier in the week, Nigeria have huge pedigree and they also have both quality and quantity of players. It is important that we select the best all the time to win the big games.”
Defender and deputy skipper William Ekong and midfielder Innocent Bonke have returned to their respective bases in England and France to attend to injuries copped during the international break. Bonke was injured in the friendly game against Mexico in Dallas on 28th May, while Ekong suffered a groin strain in the 2-1 defeat of Sierra Leone in Abuja on Thursday.
The Confederation of African Football has appointed Liberian official Hassen Zinnah Corneh as referee for the encounter, with his compatriots Joel Wonka Doe, Ephraim Grant Whengar and Moses Forkpah as assistant referee 1, assistant referee 2 and fourth official respectively.
Alim Konate Aboubakar from Cameroon will be match commissioner. The match starts at 1pm Morocco time.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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