Deborah Akinyosoye
Super Eagles Coach, Eric Chelle, has imposed strict restrictions in and around the national team’s camp as Nigeria prepares for tomorrow’s must win game against Zimbabwe, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The Super Eagles defeated hosts, Rwanda, 2-0 in Kigali, on Friday to revive Nigeria’s World Cup qualification hopes, moving from fifth position to fourth position on the table with six points.
Zimbabwe, who drew 2-2 with Benin Republic on Thursday, are already in Uyo hoping to stop the Super Eagles in front of their fans. To ensure that the team is well primed to handle the Zimbabwean challenge, Super Eagles’ Media Officer, Promise Efoghe, yesterday, disclosed that Coach Chelle is not carried away by the win over Rwanda and is demanding maximum concentration from the players prior to the game.
“To this end, he has imposed restrictions in and around the team’s camp, no visitors, no journalists are allowed, and Sunday’s (yesterday’s) training is closed. Monday’s session will be opened for the mandatory 15 minutes and this will be shortly after the official press conference. Provisions will be made for mixed zone interaction with the players on match day.”
On arrival in Uyo on Saturday, the players talked about their readiness to win all the remaining games in Group C and enhance their chances of returning to the World Cup after missing the Qatar 2022 edition.
Leading the voices was Skipper William Troost-Ekong, who said that Friday’s victory over Rwanda’s Amavubi was just the statement the Eagles needed to put out as the World Cup race reached halfway mark.
He said: “It was important to make the statement that we did, and we’re all happy about it, and the way we did it. Of course, we have not qualified and there’s still a lot of work, but we have started the recovery in a good way and we just have to keep working hard.
“I don’t want to go into the circumstances that made the first four matches go the way that they went. The good thing is we can still recover and revive the campaign, and we have done that.”
Ekong promised to rally the troops ahead of the Day 6 encounter against the Warriors of Zimbabwe, saying: “We read somewhere that the Zimbabweans are being motivated to come to Uyo and get a result. They should forget it. We are hugely motivated by the ambition to play at the FIFA World Cup.
“Apart from myself and Alex (Iwobi) and perhaps a couple others, who were part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, this generation is hungry to play at the highest level. We want to make Nigeria proud and at the same time, do ourselves proud.”
Top striker, Victor Osimhen, whose two goals saw off the Amavubi on Friday, added: “We are ready. The remaining matches are wars and we must fight them with all that we have to win.”
Victory tomorrow will take Nigeria to nine points, and in firm contention for the ticket, especially if Benin Republic and South Africa cancel themselves out inside Abidjan’s Stade Félix Houphouet-Boigny.