Former Nigeria international Austin Eguavoen believes the current Super Eagles players have the capacity and quality to win next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Eagles will be looking to land a first AFCON title since 2013 under the late Stephen Keshi.
They are in Group A with hosts Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea for the 2023 edition.
As part of preparations for the tournament the three-time AFCON winners defeated Mozambique 3-2 and played a 2-2 draw with Saudi Arabia in a doubleheader international friendly games in Portugal.
Also Read: Friendly: Peseiro Delighted To End Super Eagles’ Barren Run
Speaking in an interview on Brila FM Eguavoen, who helped Nigeria win the 1994 AFCON, however said winning the continental showpiece wouldn’t come easy.
“We have been craving to try to get the Nations Cup back, since 2013 we’ve not been able to achieve that feat because we know we have the capacity, we have the quality and everything to be able to win it.
“But to say it is easy to achieve it is another thing so everybody has to work towards the same goal, support the team whichever way we can, support the coaches and the players have to go out there and do the job.“
The race for the 2026 FIFA World Cup ticket will begin in November with the Eagles hosting Lesotho on match day one.
They will then head to Harare to face Zimbabwe in the second round of games in the qualifiers.
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20 Comments
Is this MAN still ALIVE???
Did you kill him @Monkeypost?
I SUBMITED his NAME to our VILLAGE ORACLE. Am SHOCKED that HE is still ALIVE….
God will Punish you and your generation
The dream to conquer Africa for the fourth time may be unrealistic with uzoho & Co in goal definitely peseiro needs to look for other options, one howler too many.
@Monkey Post, LOL! You’re so funny.
Well, I don’t think we have the quality to win the next year’s AFCON. The coach is very lazy and couldn’t fix the defensive flaws on the team. I cannot fathom why his contract was renewed.That defence and goal-keeping is very porous. Conceding five goals in two matches. The funnies is three free kicks.
You cannot win the AFCON with a very weak defence.The NFF, please look for a very defence coach to work on our defence.
@Monkey Post, LOL! You’re so funny.
Well, I don’t think we have the quality to win the next year’s AFCON. The coach is very lazy and couldn’t fix the defensive flaws on the team. I cannot fathom why his contract was renewed.That defence and goal-keeping is very porous. Conceding four goals in two matches. The funnies is three free kicks.
You cannot win the AFCON with a very weak defence.The NFF, please look for a very defence coach to work on our defence.
I think we can’t conquer the Africa for the fourth time; NFF technical committee must compell coach Peseiro to play with strict and rigorous defensive style on defensive midfield and back line , cause it cleared that Super Eagles have been lacking defensive mentality, but they have strong offensive style of play; so peseiro must play with tow strong defensive midfielders like to play with pair( Ndidi,Onyedika); also NFF must compell Peseiro to choose Aniagbosso than weak and floppy Uzoho, AFCON. needs strong defence and strong and agile goalkeeper who can deal rightly with crossed balls, direct foul kicks, shot from distance, I think Aniagbosso has these traits.
I agree with you the coach is arrogant in deploying all attack formation against opponents. Let him work on our defense and midfield but he is so lazy ripping where he did not sow relying on our attackers to win the nations cup. I watched Senegal and Cameron yesterday , the two countries don’t have the bunch of attackers we have but they both have midfield and defense that will any day hold our attackers while ours can not withstand their attackers for twenty minutes before we collapse. The solution to this is to deploy more men in middle. Then we can rely on oppositions making mistakes to punish them . We will surely qualify out of that group and probably go past the next phase
Bobby,
I have to agree with you as Nigeria seems unready to be framed as a team capable of lifting the Afcon trophy.
I was satisfied with the outcome of the last game against Mozambique but the facts hide the brutal reality.
– We concede from set pieces
– Our defensive apparatus is wobbly.
– We have glaring goalkeeping issues (which is slightly different from saying we have goalkeeper problems. We have known good goalkeepers who need to be supported with state of the art training and other goalkeepers who need to be discovered and encouraged)
– Our midfield is lightweight.
– Some players are simply not delivering the goods despite multiple invitations.
– Our players haven’t demonstrated enough technical capabilities to suggest they can maximise the possibilities in Peseiro’s philosophy.
Peseiro continues to practice a philosophy of “practice makes perfect”. So he has stubbornly kept to his ways. I pray it comes good for him and Nigeria eventually.
We also had the capacity to win it when OUR OWN was on the job. So obviously, capacity alone won’t cut it.
So far, Peseiro is proving to be Eguavoen 2.0.
Under these guys, when the SE meet teams that give them freedom to play, they do ok. But when the freedom is restricted, wahala dey. Need I remind you of what we endured against Ghana and Tunisia with OUR OWN? No plan B, no tactical response to opponent’s strategy.
When opponents figure out Peseiro’s initial tactics, how will he respond? Can he even respond? From what we’ve seen thus far, e get as e be.
Hmmm. We need to see more tactical input from Peseiro. That is what will give us the much craved competitive edge.
The truth is neither Peseiro or Gernot rhor is the problem with this team, the root cause of our current football woes is the technical advisers who wants every coach handling the national teams to play the traditional 4-4-2 pattern that most of them were used to, part of the disagreement between the Gernot rhor and the technical advisers was this issue of tactics, when Gernot rhor was using his own defensive 4-5-1 or 3-5-2 pattern he churned out impressive results but when he was forced to revert to the traditional Nigeria 1994 style of wing play the team started having issues. The only reason Peseiro was employed over other coaches is because he too is a fan of the wing play and Nigeria fans just have to endure this for now. Unless something miraculous happens a compact team that knows how to clip the wings will destroy this empty midfield of Nigeria teams.
Nice input @ Mr. Nice. You see Nigerians are stuck in the 1994 4-4-2 formation. You see in those days we had a devastating attacking quality and a very disciplined defense. Also we had a maestro in the midfield that can dribble 5 players in one sequence. Moreover, we had a dominant goalkeeper
Today I don’t think we have such players anymore. We have perhaps the best attack in Africa, a shaky midfield and a porous defense with horrendous goalkeepers. You can’t win anything with such a team structure.
The gaffer needs to be decisive or face the sack after the AFCON. This technical committee are stuck in the 4-4-2 formation of days of yore because it brought us glory. However, in those days we had great goalkeepers, the greatest midfield combos and a ruthless attack.
I like Dele Bashiru and Onyedika in that midfield going forward. Players who can shoot on target from distance. Same with Onyeka. He’s gradually cementing his place in the SuperEagles. We might be able to get something from these set of midfielders depending on the formation.
The defense is not that bad, but when you have an OTONDO in goal you will still lose unless you can outscore your opponents.
Well, Peseiro has elected to stick with his own rendition of 4-4-2 formation even in the face of fan criticisms. I am yet to be fully bought into the efficiency of this approach against quality oppositions simply because the end results are yet to justify the means of formation used.
But at least I can see what he is trying to do.
Against Algeria, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe, it functioned like like clockwork. But we were overrun by Portugal and not all too convincing against Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone (where the formation only succeeded in delivering three victories with just one goal margin victory on each occasion and even one loss in the process against Guinea Bissau).
Tacitly, Peseiro has promised goals galore with this formation but it is just not happening. But, but, you can’t deny that the formation is allowing the players to get into promising positions. They push forward at the slightest opportunity.
If our strikers are as savvy as we think they are (and our wingers [Chukwueze, Lookman] are more precise in their deliveries) , indeed, Peseiro’s just-in-time, quick transition all-out-attack philosophy may have produced more goals.
But we are also leaking goals. For me, we don’t have GOALKEEPER-PROBLEM, we have goalkeeping problems. Uzoho and Okoye are cut from different goalkeeping cloths, yet the same issues plague them in Peseiro’s and Eguavoen’s Super Eagles. Already there are murmurings in certain quarters that, based on just one match against Sierra Leone, even Adeleye is not good. And yeah, did anyone analyse the second goal scored by Sierra Leone against Adeleye? It was eerily similar to Partey’s goal in Abuja – the same thunder seems likely to strike any goalkeeper under the current dispensation.
People are saying Adeleye is not tall enough not taking into account that Enyeama is just marginally taller than Adeleye so much so u would think they are the same height.
Sometimes in life, you just have to keep practicing, practicing and practicing the same thing until you get it right. I like the former Liverpool and Leicester coach Brendan Rodgers. But he failed in Liverpool and ultimately fell out of favour in Leicester because he kept tweaking and changing formations under panic. One time he will pair Iheanacho and Vardy with 2 at the top only to drop Iheanacho in another game and play Vardy by himself. This caused confusion to the players and ultimately doomed his plans leading to his sack in Liverpool and Leicester.
I guess there might be some wisdom is settling for one formation and just sticking with it, only making modifications to it’s movements and application in-game.
See yesterday, see Onyeka. He seems to be settling in that role within the framework of the formation. Simon knows what to do and Iwobi threads passes from deep. Maybe, just maybe this Peseiro’s approach will come good in time enough for world cup qualifiers and Afcon.
Love or loathe Eguavoen but 4-4-2 brought him fabulous success in the Afcon until he was found out. Even at that, he only lost narrowly to Tunisia and he didn’t lose in open play to Ghana.
Peseiro plays a slightly different version of 4-4-2. His is called 4-4-2 double 6.
His two midfielders (unlike Eguavoen where Aribo was largely in front of Ndidi) strive to be on the same line and play out from deep with one of the wingers (mainly Iheanacho or Chukwueze) drifting in to fill the gap in centre attacking midfield.
Iheanacho was simply wonderful to watch in that roving role while Chukwueze threaded a delicious through pass to Lookman who really should have done better against Saudi Arabia with his scuffed shot. Ndidi, Iwobi and Onyeka are naturally defensive minded with attacking tendencies.
Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid used this 4-4-2 throughout a whole season regardless of opposition.
It can work.
I can only assess it based on the output Peseiro’s Super Eagles are producing and so far, it is a bit of hit-or-miss. But I can understand why he persists but if it ultimately doesn’t work, the price in world cup qualification and credible Afcon showing may be to high to pay.
If it does work, Happy Days!
Nigerian fans need to take it easy!
It was a friendly game used to try newer players, many players got their first ever start for the team with these games.. for the first time onyeka played with onyedika and also for the first time we introduced a new winger in bashiru who I think is one for the future and a good alternative to Sam chukwueze..
I personally feel that the boys took it easy after the red card and were probably saving their legs for their club sides.. this team can do better!
No matter how we criticize the coach’s formation it is on record that this same 4-4-2 gave Nigeria their biggest win in an international game ~the 9 – 0 demolition of soa toe mei or whatever they are called.. if you say they were a weak side other countries have played same team in recent times and didn’t score 9 against them..
If you have noticed the super eagles scores a minimum of 2 goals in all their recent games but again it makes us concede goals..
Again friendly games are useful to get never players who can complement the older established players.. it’s sad we didn’t get to see other goalkeeping options for the team..
Fisayo is not a winger, he was tried there by the coach.
Mali just won Saudi Arabia ( 3-1).. this shows how difficult the upcoming Afcon will be..
Again as against Nigeria ,Saudi Arabia had the better ball possession and more passes of the ball but they fail to know how to convert them to shot on target or goal attempt..
The Nigeria- Saudi game was a game we should have won, if chukwueze and lookman had converted their chances we would have defeated Saudi with lots of goals but I don’t understand why those players like to miss clear chances..
This Afcon will be tough.. Even the so called smaller teams will teach the bigger teams some football lessons..
We need to get it right!
That Nigeria vs Saudi match was one of the best under peseiro, 4 to 15 shorts in favor of Nigeria, this even lead Mancini to voice out and warn other africa team against the SE, yes soccer is all abt goals but I. Some instances we shd learn to check other factors, RM during this season pre-season and early marchers during the season are creating multiple chances without scoring them, but now the story have change, me will advice we allow the coach don his job in peace.
I cannot but concor with with Mr Nice. Unless pasero jettison the idea of using 442 to a more defensive formation 433 or 352( I know deo will be blushing right now) there is no way we can beat a good team. Especially with the inconsistency performance from our wingers, I don’t see the need to be playing some players and formation when is obviously not working.
Personally, I am not impressed with this coach. He does not seem decisive.
There is no way Nigeria wins the next afcon with the set of goal keepers we currently have. If peseiro insist on Uzoho then SE should be considered tourist at Ivory Coast because their exit is cemented.
This team has the capacity to go very far in this tournament if he works on the defensive issues (especially set pieces ) and more importantly on the goal keeping department. There is an urgent need to scout for a reliable Nigerian goal keeper between now and afcon. They need to scout the nooks and cranny of the domestic league for competent shot stoppers. It is lazy and a total shame that since peseiro took over, he has been using a goal keeper who sits on the bench in Cyprus, BIG SHAME!