Ahead of the battle of Point Noire this
weekend, Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi
has warned his players to brace themselves
up for a very challenging outing in the
Congolese city.
The former Nigeria captain says he has
been telling his players to prepare their
minds for a thorough African experience.
The African champions are made up
predominantly of overseas based players,
with a couple of them even born outside of
Nigeria, but Keshi says the players must be
ready and ‘switch off the European
mentality and switch one the African
mentality.’
“We always have this everywhere we go so
they just have to be ready, this is African
football it’s not European football. I always
tell my players ‘once you leave Europe,
switch on your African mentality and switch
off your European mentality’. So they
should be ready,” Keshi told SL10.ng.
The Nigerians are under intense pressure to
qualify for the 2015 African Cup of Nations,
having started the qualifiers poorly and
must be desperate to win back-to-back
games against the Red Devils and the
Bafana Bafana if they are stand any chance
of qualification.
They won the last edition of the tournament
in South Africa in 2013, and know it will be
a disaster if they fail to defend their crown
in 2015.