Nigeria’s Super Eagles will go all out for victory today against the visiting Syli National of Guinea at the Abuja Nationale Stadium as the race for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea is set for a thrilling climax across the continent this weekend.?
21 teams are chasing the remaining 10 places in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Burkina Faso and Senegal last month sealed their places to join earlier qualified Botswana and Cote d’Ivoire, while the two co-host nations have automatic ticket to the biannual African football showpiece.?
Six-time champions and winners of last three editions, Egypt and Cameroon are already out of the race for a place in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. There could be more top casualties this weekend as qualifiers from eight groups will be decided. Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Ghana and Tunisia are all in varying degrees of missing out in the tournament.?
?
Nigeria needs a win by any margin to upturn the table the Guineans have been topping in Group B since the start of the qualifiers. With this in the mind of Coach Samson Siasia and his 23-man squad for today’s decisive game against her West African rival, Nigerians can hope for nothing but a victory from the Super Eagles at the main bowl of Abuja National Stadium.
?
Nigeria is currently in second position in Group B with only 10 points from five matches, three points behind Guinea’s Syli Nationale, who are in Abuja with the mindset of getting a draw. Siasia has made it clear that he is hell-bent on joining the long list of African coaches who featured at the Africa Cup of Nations both as a player and manager, and therefore, would go dig deeper into his technical book of tricks and come up with a winning formation that would silence the Guineans.
?
He is insisting that he would not sit back and watch that dream go up in flames before his eyes. “We will definitely beat Guinea well on Saturday and qualify for the Nations Cup. You can see the boys are here and they are fully ready for the match. We have no other choice than to win well against the Guineans. They are hoping to get a draw here, but I don’t think that will be possible. We will go for an early goal and make the game open and more competing because they will definitely be trying to play a defensive game; but if we get an early goal, that will unsettle them and open the game,” he told journalists on Tuesday after the light training session in Abuja ahead of today’s match.
Guinea have led the standings since the first day of action when they defeated Ethiopia 4-1 in Addis Ababa and Nigeria could only manage a 2-0 home win over Madagascar in Calabar. The Syli Stars will win the group if they get a draw, while Nigeria will book their ticket to the finals if they win by at least 1-0.
?
The last time Guinea visited Nigeria was in 1997, when they fell 2-1 in a 1998 World Cup qualifier in Lagos. Today’s game will kick off by 2pm local time after the initial protests from both players and officials were turned down by CAF.?
Another interesting cracker for this weekend is the tie between last year’s finalist, Ghana and Sudan in Khartoum. ?The Ghanaians are aware that Sudan will be no pushovers when the two sides clash in the Group I decider for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
?
The Black Stars need a draw in today’s game to get through, but the Nile Crocodiles as Sudanese national team are popularly called will be tough to crack. The Sudanese held the World Cup quarter finalists to a 0-0 draw in their first round clash in Kumasi last year. Ghana managed to beat Sudan 2-0 on their way to last year’s World Cup which has given them some level of hope that they may achieve a similar feat today. But Ghana will be facing a different Sudanese side which is dominated by players from African Champions League semi finalists Al Hilal. The Sudanese side are tenacious at home in the unforgivable North African hot weather.?
?
Aware that Ghana is eyeing an upset in Khartoum, they have stepped up their preparations for the game at a training camp in Ethiopia. Both Ghana and Sudan are on 13 points, but Ghana tops the group ahead of the North Africans on superior goal difference. A draw could see both sides qualify for the championship with the second placed team in the group more likely to pick one of the tickets for best losers.?
?
In group G, South Africa will be hoping to secure a place in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon when they host Sierra Leone today, but even a convincing win may not be enough for South Africa. Bafana Bafana’s destiny is no longer in their hands. They need Egypt to deny the table toper, Niger, a win in Cairo to go through. If the Pharaohs beat Niger, then a draw with Sierra Leone would see Bafana Bafana top the group, but if the match in Cairo ends in a draw, then South Africa would need to defeat their visitors to finish top.
In Group K, Botswana clinched a first finals appearance in mid-year, leaving Tunisia and Malawi to fight for second place and automatic qualification, because this is the only five-team pool. Malawi will qualify on the head-to-head rule if they match the Tunisian result.?