Super Eagles
striker, Emenike
Emenike believes
the playing
surface at the
Municipal
Stadium,
Khartoum is to
blame for the
lackluster display and 0-1 defeat to the
Falcons of Jediane in 2015 Afcon
qualifying.
The game was played on artificial surface
on Saturday and Abd Elgadir Babeker
Bakri struck the only goal of the contest
on 42 minutes to keep the qualification
hopes of the African champions hanging
by a thread.
Emenike, who is on the books of Turkish
club, Fernabahce has now moved to explain
the less-than-appealing display of the
Super Eagles on Saturday.
“(The pitch) we played on (on) Saturday
is (worse) than when we were playing
street football. CAF must act to stop
nonsense like this from happening and
they deliberately took us there
(Khartoum) because they know we play on
better pitches,” Emenike said.
On his part, midfielder, John Mikel Obi
said he was disappointed in reports in
some sections of the local media
dismissing Nigeria’s chances of reaching
the Afcon finals in Morocco.
“Why I can’t still believe how and why we
lost that game it’s important to move
ahead and for those saying we don’t
deserve to be in Morocco, I think that is
unfortunate and we must stop spreading
that negativity because it gets to the
team,” he said.
Mikel also echoed the sentiments of
Emenike as regards the pitch in Kahrtoum
stating that the playing surface was not
the best he’s played in.
“The pitch we played in was awful. You
can’t move, the ball bounces when you
want to control it and when you shoot it
goes the wrong direction, it was a
nightmare playing on that pitch,” he said.
Nigeria can still reach the Afcon if they
win their remaining three matches and
South Africa defeats Congo at the Peter
Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane on Wednesday.
Ejide said it is important for Nigerians to
united and throw their weight behind the
team if set goals are to be realized.
“It’s at times like this that we need the
media and all of Nigerians but what we
hear is condemnation, crucify them. That
will not help the team,” he said.
Nigeria will meet Sudan in their next
game in Abuja on Wednesday before
visiting the Stade Municipal, Pointe-Noire
for a date with Congo in their penultimate
game in qualifying on November 15.
The Super Eagles then round up their
2015 Afcon qualifying campaign with a
home game against South Africa on
November 19.