Head coach of the Super Green Eagles, Austin Eguavoen says that Nigeria has absolute respect for the Black Stars of Ghana despite a disastrous African Cup campaign in Cameroon where Ghana exited at the group stage.
He says that matches between Ghana and Nigeria is a fierce clash and the performance of the two teams at the AFCON should be brushed aside.
Ghana fell to minnows Comoros 3-2 in their final group C game at the African Cup of Nations.
For the first time in the history of Ghana’s AFCON participation Ghana had never played at the AFCON without recording a win but it did happen at the 33rd edition.
Ghana crushed out of the tournament after losing to lowly ranked Comoros Island 3-2 when many expected the Black Stars to win to qualify.
The Black Stars lost their opening game to Morocco by 1-0 before drawing 1-1 with Gabon and losing 3-2 to the 132nd ranked Comoros Island.
Nigeria who were kings of the group stages winning all three games lost to Tunisia at the round of 16 stage as they failed to add to their three AFCON titles.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Juliet Bawuuah, the Nigerian gaffer revealed that the AFCON performance does not matter in the two legged tie.
“Ghana is a team that we have always respected I personally have always respected, forget about performance at the African Cup Ghana’s performance or Nigeria’s performance.”
“Nigeria Ghana any day any category is always a big one.. we are rivals we respect them we adore them and I’m sure they respect and adore us too we’re brother and sisters.
Like you said its gonna be a clash, its gonna be very tough in a friendly manner because after the game Ghana Nigeria will still exist we’ll still be friends.”
“But we are going to remain focus and try and play our game and come out with a positive results” he said.
Ghana will be seeking to qualify for the World Cup for the fourth time whiles Nigeria will be looking to make it a seventh World Cup appearance since 1994 having missed out only once in 2006.
Credit: Footballghana
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