We ‘ll Play Our Opponents With Full Strength, Super Eagles Coach Says Ahead Of Knock Out Stage

The caretaker coach of the Super Eagles, Austin Eguavoen, has said that the performance of the Super Eagles is beginning to bring back dignity to the national team.

The national team have played all three of their 2021 African Cup of Nations games with stylish victory.

The Super Eagles first defeated Mo Salah’s Egypt 1-0, Sudan 3-1 and Guinea- Bissau 2-0 in Stade Roumde Adjia, Cameroon.

This is the first time since 2006 that the team would be making such a brilliant outing in the continental competition

Eguavoen said during his post-match conference that many people had lost hope in the team following the team’s performance a few months ago.

Under former coach Gernot Rohr, the team had struggled against their opponents. They had lost to the Central African Republic in Lagos.

Eguavoen said, “But again it is the same set of players who performed brilliantly well prior to the AFCON, the last one in Egypt and also a year or couple later.

“All of a sudden, things didn’t go well as they were supposed to for some reason and that’s why people were trying to write Nigeria off.

“For the first game, nobody gave us a chance but we did the job collectively.”

According to the ex-Super Eagles legend, he encouraged the players to show commitment as they have no other country.

The coach told the players, “You don’t have any other country to play for, it’s only Nigeria and you know how passionate our people are when it comes to football.

“And then, that game was gone. We had to put it behind us and then focus on the next game. Went ahead to beat Sudan and then put it behind us and then focused on the next game.

“Now, people are thinking and starting to respect Nigeria.

“We will always respect our opponents; we will play them with full strength and we will play them the way we play with anybody.”