Super Eagles praying for luck

Football stakeholders on Wednesday in Abuja commended Nigeria’s Super Eagles for their 3-1 victory over Sudan, describing the win as a “big relief’’.

The Super Eagles defeated their Sudanese counterpart in a return leg match of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier in Abuja.

The Sudanese had earlier pipped the Eagles by a lone goal in the first leg encounter played over the weekend in Khartoum.

A cross-section of the stakeholders said after the encounter that the country’s qualification race has been brought back to live.

Peter Rufai said: “I would say that first and foremost, we are relieved. I was very worried, and, at the same time, confident that we are going to be victorious today.

“The Sudanese side exhibited a lot of skills and displayed a very good tactical formation.

“They showed that they actually came here for the three points.

“But unfortunately for them, it was not a very good time to achieve such a lofty ambition, especially at a time when Nigeria most needed the win for so many reasons.’’

He said that even though the Sudanese were tactically-loaded, the moves of players like Ahmed Musa and Mikel Obi really helped the Super Eagles carry the day.

He said he was confident that the Super Eagles could still qualify for the 2015 AFCON.

“All they need to do is to ensure that they keep winning all their games and hope for the best; I believe that we can still qualify.’’

Peterside Idah, an ex-international and soccer analyst, also said that he was relieved.

“Having not won our last three games, winning today was indeed a relief; we are now hopeful that we can go on to win our remaining two games.

“We have to win our next game against South Africa to stand a good chance of qualifying; to do that we must work very hard and hope South Africa win their other games too.

“Even though we didn’t play too well because of the pressure and tension; it’s good we won,’’ he said.

Idah further said that it was important that fans should continue to build the team’s confidence and reassure them that Nigerians are behind them.

“You saw what happened today when we won the game, everyone came on to the pitch just to show excitement.

“Imagine what would have happened if we did not win; we would have had some casualties today,’’ he said.

Colin Udoh, a journalist and sports television presenter, said the bottom line was that we won.

“It doesn’t matter how we got the result, the issue is that the team got the result and have to keep on winning to stand a chance of qualifying for the 2015 AFCON.

“It’s hard to talk tactics in a game where we had everything at stake.

“We had a few areas were we lacked a little bit of tactical discipline, but overall I think the team came together and made up for their mistakes.

“They took advantage of their opponent’s errors and scored very good goals,’’ he said.

He commended Keshi for inviting Aaron Samuel from China, saying: “One must give him thumps up because the player was outstanding today.

“He stretched himself to the limit and put his body on the line on several occasions.

“I think he was the major reason we played as well as we did because his second goal lifted the spirit of the team.

“I would also say that Mikel played much better today, but the truth is that we always expect more from him.

“So we have to look at his performance today and ask why he does not play like this all the time; we didn’t see this kind of performance in Calabar, Capetown or Khartoum,’’ he said.

He noted that our qualification comes down to the result of the match between South Africa and Congo, if it ends in a draw then things will become a lot more harder for us.

“Even though we might still have a mathematical chance of qualifying, it will still be a bit dicey.

“But, if South Africa win, then you can say that the decider will be our game against Congo; if we win that game then we will probably get through