From ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has revealed that the Super Eagles would play two African countries, ahead of next year’s Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers’ double header against Cameroon.
The Eagles who made an excellent start in the race to Russia with two consecutive wins over Zambia and Algeria would August next year host Cameroon home and away in a space of four days in the second stanza of the qualifiers.
President of NFF, Amaju Pinnick told Daily Sunsports exclusively that the soccer federation would prepare the Eagles for the two games with two international friendlies against African oppositions who play the same brand of football with the Central African country.
Amaju noted that it would be counterproductive going for friendly matches against European countries when the next hurdle to cross is Cameroon.
In Amaju’s words; “We have reasoned that it won’t make sense playing Germany or Wales when the Super Eagles would face a physical side like Cameroon. So, as we speak, we have secured a friendly against Senegal and we are working on playing Cote d’Ivoire. These are two games that would adequately prepare us for the Cameroon games since they both play the same style of football with Cameroon.”
Amaju stressed that the NFF would do everything possible to ensure the Eagles are not match rusty ahead of the Cameroon battle. Hear him: “Our aim is to ensure that we keep the players on their toes with the two available FIFA windows. We had gotten two top teams in the world but we had to tell them to relax because we cannot be playing against Germany or Wales when we are preparing against Cameroon. We need to play teams that are physical and combative side as Cameroon. The technical committee has put their heads together and reported to me and I have to give them go ahead. We are ensuring that everything we need to do is perfected. The qualifier is not a sprint but marathon. It needs endurance and persistence. We need to secure the maximum point to qualify. Agreed, we have started on very good and solid footing but we must have to look beyond that and consolidate. I held over an hour discussion with the coach, Rohr, on Monday and he revealed some new things he wants to do. At the end of the discussion, he told me to go and relax as he would get the job done.”