After Nigeria were held to a 0-0 draw by tournament debutants Cape Verde last night in, Super Eagles coach Keshi admitted he was left with plenty to ponder after the performance.
"Friendlies are meant to expose areas we need to work on. The second half was slightly better and lessons are learned," Keshi said.
"There were some bright moments but we still have time to quickly rectify our obvious weaknesses."
The Super Eagles will play their last warm-up against FCRotterdam in Faro on 16 January before they depart for the tournament.
The Blue Sharks of Cape Verde will take some heart from Wednesday’s bold display, while for Nigeria, there is a lot of work ahead.
Eagles goalkeeper Austin Ejide was forced to make at least three big saves within the first 15 minutes as Cape Verde poured forward at the Algrave Stadium in Faro, Portugal.
It was not until the 20th minute before Nigeria recorded their first shot at goal when Ahmed Musa drilleda shot from inside the box after he was set up by Emmanuel Emenike, but the Cape Verde goalkeeper blocked it to safety.
Ejide would be forced out of the game on the half hour with a suspected hamstring injury when he stretched forward to again thwart another Cape Verde attempt at goal.
By the 36th minute, Nigeria had three players booked byreferee Hugo Miguel – Efe Ambrose, Joseph Yobo and Elderson Echiejile.
In the second half, Nigeria lifted up their game with Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi shooting at goal nine minutesfrom time only to be denied a rare goal from open play by the Cape Verde goalkeeper.
The introduction of Real Betismidfielder Nosa Igiebor re-energised the Eagles, butthat did not stop the team who slayed Cameroon in the 2013 AFCON qualifiers from threatening their goal on a few other occasions.
Another positive was the matured display of substituteKenneth Omeruo, who calmed things down at the back in place of the more experienced Ambrose.

Let just hope the coach make the right selection of players believe in this competition all the countries av their own foriegn and home base players
so that it wont be a situation were we start giving stupid excuses..