The camp of Nigeria Super Eagles has been shaken to its ground with two major blows on Monday.
One was the 2-0 defeat to Guinea in a pre AFCON friendly test game in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the second was another injury blow to one of its Striker Victor Boniface.
The Bayern Leverkusen striker picked up an injury in the game against Guinea and has been declared unavailable of Nigeria’s 20th outing to the Nations Cup.
The 2-0 loss to Guinea has raised a lot of concerns from fans who were earlier encouraged by the Eagles’ demolition of an ‘unnamed Abu Dhabi Club’ 12-0 on Sunday.
Aguibou Camara netted the opener for the Guinea Syli National team in the 14th minute of the game and while Super Eagles had a chance to go level from the spot kick resulting from a foul against Sadiq Umar, Simon Moses failed to convert the penalty.
The Guineans would later double the lead in the 64th minute through Facinet Conté’s strike, thus compounding the three time AFCON Champions woes as they prepare for African showpiece.
Other talking points
The Super Eagles are going to Cote D’Ivoire are heading into the 34th edition of the Nations Cup in Ivory Coast.
Always tagged a favourites, many Nigerians have expressed mix feelings on what the performance of the team will be.
With top players playing across the European league dominated the 25-man squad, only one home based player, Olorunleke Ojo made the list.
Head Coach Jose Paseiro will be leading the team that has earlier lost one of its finest midfielders, Wilfred Ndidi to injury. He was later replaced by Alhassan Yusuf.
Tinubu Boost Eagles, clears outstanding arrears.
President Bola Tinubu has also cleared the outstanding payment that the Super Eagles were owed including other sporting teams.
According to a statement on the X handle of Tinubu’s Media Centre, on Sunday, the payment includes the clearing of the senior national team coach salaries running up to 15 months, payments of allowances and promises due to the senior national teams, females, and Under-20 national team.
The statement reads, “President @officialABAT has approved the payment of N12 billion outstanding backlog for Nigeria’s National teams of various sports, which includes Super Eagles and others.
“The payment entails the clearing of the senior national team coach salaries running up to 15 months, payments of allowances and promises due to the senior national teams, females, and Under-20 national team.
“This is coming at a time when the Super Eagles of Nigeria are preparing to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations, which is billed to start later this month.
Eagles are drawn in Group A alongside host nation Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau