…says Eagles not clinical enough
Super Eagles interim coach, Austin Eguavoen, has admitted that his side has not been clinical enough at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The coach also hinted that he would make changes to the starting line-up that claimed wins over Egypt and Sudan in their final Group D encounter against Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday.
The Eagles scored four goals and conceded one but former Eagles captain Eguavoen is not pleased with his side’s wastefulness in front of goal.
“Sometimes scoring goals is still a problem,” he told PUNCH Sports Extra.
“It’s in the goal area that we have missed a lot of chances. We are not clinical enough in front of goal; we missed a couple of sitters in the games we’ve played. We gave Sudan some chances to score.”
Eguavoen kept faith with the same line-up in his side’s victories over Egypt and Sudan but explained that his decision to retain the same squad for the games was due to the short time he had to prepare the team for the tournament.
But with knockout stage qualification in the bag, Eguavoen, nicknamed Cerezo, is now ready to bring in fresh faces against the Bissau-Guineans.
Eguavoen said, “I didn’t want to take the risk, which was why I retained the same starting line-up.
“Coaching of this team started on January 6 and it was difficult to take the risk because it was better to play with a team that has been together for some time.
“We banked on players that knew themselves. Everybody in this team has a chance to play in this tournament, so with qualification secured, we will be giving some players the opportunity to play in the next game.”
Peter Olayinka, Henry Onyekuru, Francis Uzoho, John Noble, Daniel Akpeyi, Tyronne Ebuehi, Frank Onyeka, Jamilu Collins and Olisa Ndah are yet to make an appearance in the tournament.
On his side’s chances of lifting the title, he added, “There are 24 teams here and there are chances for teams to make it to the second round.
“Every team at this tournament is good enough to win this trophy, whoever comes our way we will be ready to play them. Whoever wants to be champions must be ready to play any team.
The Eagles will face one of the third-place teams from Group B, E, or F in the round of 16 in Garoua. (Punch)
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