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By: Ebenezer Bajela.
In contrast to claims that Nigeria’s only hurdle is against hosts Ivory Coast at January’s Africa Cup of Nations, Atlanta ’96 gold medallist, Abiodun Obafemi, instead warned that the Super Eagles must be wary of Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau – their other groups opponents, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Eagles are paired in Group A alongside the hosts, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea.
While they avoided a confrontation against one of the North Africans, Jose Peseiro’s men were, however, handed a tricky start to their campaign with a game against the National Thunder, as the EquatoGuineans are fondly called.
Nigeria, three-time AFCON winners, will strive to clinch the title once again, having previously triumphed in 1980, 1994 and 2013.
The Eagles begin their quest for their fourth title against Juan Micha’s men January 14 before squaring off against the hosts January 18 at the 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan in one of the most highly anticipated games of the tournament’s group stage.
Speaking with PUNCH Sports Extra, Obafemi, a former Eagles defender, said while so much attention had been on the Eagles game against Ivory Coast, he urged the team to be wary of their other two opponents.
“The truth is people have been talking so much about the game involving Nigeria and Ivory Coast but honestly I think the games against the Guineans are going to be tough and they might just be the stumbling blocks for us.
“They are going to be the teams that will give us bigger problems than the Ivorians because usually we don’t have problems playing against the highly-ranked countries, but we tend to struggle when we face the smaller countries who have nothing to lose. It has always been like that and we saw what happened during the games we recently played. We just need to raise the level of our seriousness and take the game as war because we need to get it right in every department.
“We are the team to beat and every country wants to beat us because with the quality of players we have, every team in the world knows that we are a formidable side and they take us seriously.”
The 34th edition of the AFCON kicks off in 37 days.