Nigeria’s Dream Team: Siasia says they will do well against Senegal

Coach Samson Siasia believes the Nigerian U-23 team showed a vast improvement in their last group game against Algeria, by not conceding a goal and believes therefore they would beat their Senegalese counterparts today.

What is at stake are three tickets to the Rio Olympics next year and a victory today would assure the U-23 team, also called the Dream Team VI one of the tickets.

Nigeria, 1996 champions and 2008 vice champions, missed the 2012 Olympics as Coach Austin Eguavoen’s Class of 2011 lost out at the inaugural Africa U-23 Cup of Nations in Morocco.

Siasia’s group will miss team captain Azubuike Okechukwu, who is suspended after receiving a second yellow card in the game against Algeria on Saturday. But Siasia says there is no reason to panic.

He told the NFF website: “We would have loved to have Azubuike because he is the captain and a big motivator, and you have to have a leader on the field. But he’s suspended, so we have to live with that. There is no need crying over spilt milk. In life, you always have to make adjustments in several areas. Azubuike’s absence will give another player the opportunity to prove himself.”

He added: “We are not going back home empty –handed; it’s no retreat, no surrender. We have to get ourselves ready for tomorrow’s game; it’s going to be a difficult one. It’s going to be eleven players against eleven, so we have our chances to qualify.”

Reacting on his rearguard that has conceded four goals in three games, Siasia said: “We have learnt our lessons. Two games in which the first half looked good and the last half didn’t. We made our corrections and you can see from how we played in the last game.” Coach Siasia added that for now, he is using FIFA U-17 World Cup sensation Victor Osimhen sparingly, so that the boy doesn’t get consumed by the occasion.

Wednesday’s clash will take place at the Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor, where Siasia scored Nigeria’s first goal in a 2-1 defeat of host Senegal in the opening match of the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations.