Former international player Waidi Akanni remarked on Saturday that the Super Eagles would require a miracle to secure victory in the 2023 Côte d’Ivoire Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) due to insufficient preparation.
Akanni expressed these views during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, with just under two weeks remaining until the commencement of the tournament, scheduled to take place from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
His words: “My expectations are the 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 the Super Eagles to come out on top 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, a member of the bronze medal-winning U-20 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship team, said the handlers of the team should have included some home-based players.
“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 until about a week before AFCON.
“I think the coaches should have allowed some home-based players to compete for some positions, not only goalkeepers.
“The final list is predictable, as we had all the former players both fit and unfit on the 41-man list,” he said.
According to report, the team is scheduled to embark on a one-week training camp in Abu Dhabi.
Following this, they will head to Abidjan, where they are slated to compete against Equatorial Guinea in the initial Group A match on January 14, 2024, and subsequently face Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau.
The Super Eagles, triumphant in the tournament three times (in 1980, 1994, and 2013), aim to secure their fourth championship when the tournament commences in January 2004.