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Super Eagles need a miracle for 2023 AFCON victory – Waidi Akanni
Former international player, Waidi Akanni has on Saturday stated that the Super Eagles would require a miracle to clinch victory in the 2023 Côte d’Ivoire Africa Nation’s Cup (AFCON) due to inadequate preparation.
Akanni shared this perspective during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, just weeks away from the tournament’s kick-off scheduled from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
“My expectations are same whenever Super Eagles play, they have become very unreliable. So, I won’t expect much from them because I don’t want to be disappointed.
“Winning AFCON will be a miracle for Nigeria. It would be presumptuous of me to expect Super Eagles to come out tops at the championship.
“One of the elements of a team is predictability, I can’t predict them because I don’t know their pedigree.
“I believe I’m not the only one that feels this way about the team, a lot needs to be worked on in the midfield, defence and goalkeeping departments of the team,” he said.
Akanni, part of the U-20 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship bronze medal-winning team, expressed the view that the team’s management should have incorporated some players from the domestic league.
“It has always been the same for AFCON with African countries because of the European season. It’s difficult to get a full house of players as a group till about a week to AFCON.
“I think the coaches should have given some home-based players the opportunity to compete for some positions, not only goalkeepers.
“The final list is predictable as we had all the former players both fit and unfit in the 41-Man list,” he said.
NAN reports that the team is set to depart for a one-week training camp in Abu Dhabi.
The team will later proceed to Abidjan where it will face Equatorial Guinea in the opening Group A match on Jan. 14, 2024, and later Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea-Bissau.
Super Eagles, three-time champions of the tournament: 1980, 1994, and 2013, hope to win the trophy for the fourth time when the tournament kicks off in January 2004. (NAN)
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