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2024 AFCON: Ex Super Eagles Akanni water down team's chances of winning title

Posted : 31 December 2023

Ex-international Waidi Akanni stated on Saturday that the Super Eagles would need a miracle to win the 2023 Côte d'Ivoire Africa Nations Cup (AFCON) due to inadequate preparation.


Akanni made this statement in an interview in Lagos, with barely two weeks until the tournament kicks off, scheduled from January 13 to February 11, 2024.


"My expectations remain the same whenever the 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 who feels this way about the team. A lot needs to be worked on in the midfield, defense, and goalkeeping departments of the team," he said.


Akanni, a member of the bronze medal-winning U-20 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship team, mentioned that the team handlers 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 given some home-based players the opportunity to compete for some positions, not only goalkeepers.


"The final list is predictable, as we had all the former players, both fit and unfit, in the 41-man list," he said.


The team is set to depart for a one-week training camp in Abu Dhabi.


The team will later proceed to Abidjan, where it will face Equatorial Guinea in the opening Group A match on January 14, 2024, and later Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau.


The Super Eagles, three-time champions of the tournament in 1980, 1994, and 2013, hope to win the trophy for the fourth time when the tournament kicks off in January 2024.

 

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