In their reactions to Friday’s African Cup of Nations draw, where some minor African countries where pitched in the Super Eagles’ group, fans of Nigerian football have advised the players against complacency with the group pairings.
Some of them who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin, Kwara State, said the Super Eagles should not underrate the teams because there are no longer minors in football.
AFCON 2019 Find out what fans are saying about Super Eagles’ group
The Super Eagles of Nigeria have been paired in Group B with Guinea, Madagascar and Burundi for the 2019 AFCON scheduled to hold from June 21 to July 19 in Egypt.
Mr Tope Aderinoye said the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should ensure they start preparation immediately and not think that the group stage would be easy.
”It might not be easy as everybody thinks, so it is better the NFF engage them now, so that by the time the tournament starts, they would have crossed the ‘t’ and dotted the ‘i’s.
”This is because we cannot afford not to come out of that group convincingly,” Aderinoye said.
Another respondent, Mr Ibrahim Abdulrahman said the players and the coaching crew should clear the thoughts that the other teams in the group are minors.
”They should be prepared to play them as if they are playing the like of Cameroon, South Africa and Senegal.
”These so called small teams can spring up surprises when nobody expects, because there are no more minors in football,” Abdulrahman said.
On his part, Mr Shona Ajala, said the pairing looks like a walk in the park but the Eagles should not take it for granted.
”Our group seems the easiest but we shouldn’t be complacent about that.
”Super Eagles have grown beyond qualification by calculations because it is when we have supposedly easy opponents that we struggle to qualify, they should take caution from now on,” Ajala said.
