The build up to the next Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to hold in Cameroun looks certain to offer a strong challenge for teams on the continent to excel as the qualifiers will begin on the weekend of June 9, 2017 in twelve groups that will see teams emerge for the finals in what will aptly be described as a mission to dislodge the defending champions, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun.
The pairings in the different groups has Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar and Sudan, Group B has Morocco, Malawi, Cameroun and Comoros, Group C with Burundi, Gabon, Mali and South Sudan while Group D will feature Algeria, Gambia , Benin and Togo.
Other group pairings include Libya, Seychelles, South Africa and Nigeria in Group E, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Sierra Leone in Group F, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Congo, D.R. Congo in Group G, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Central Africa in Group H, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Botswana and Angola in Group I, Tunisia, Egypt, Niger and Swaziland in Group J, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia and Guinea Bissau in Group K and Tanzania, Cape Verde, Lesetho and Uganda in Group L.
For Nigeria, the journey back to the apex of continental football championship after two successive absence begins with a key home qualifier against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium ( The Nest of Champions) , Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Saturday, June 10, 2017 in a fixture where expectations have become high for the Super Eagles to fly past the South African side.
The failure of the Super Eagles to feature at the last two editions of the competition was a big disappointment to the team as at that time, the fans and perhaps some African Countries and even sponsors who had come to identify with the sterling depth of qualities in the country and the absence of the flair the Eagles bring into any competition.
That absence, gave the Nigeria Football Federation a new platform to usher a new dawn of fresh talents under the managerial skills of Gernot Rorh whose tenure so far has seen the Super Eagles presently rise to becoming Africa’s fifth best team from the latest FIFA rankings.
The big game is coming at a time the renaissance in the Super Eagles has continued to receive rave reviews from sports pundits across the globe as the future beckons on the extensive quality of players that would be the focus at the next Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup in 2018 in Russia.
The Eagles today are title contenders for the next Nations Cup on current performance of some of their players including Victor Moses, Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Leon Balogun, Troost Ekong in a team currently being rebuilt with a younger generation of great skills and talents.
With a strong pedigree of seventeen Nations Cup appearances and three titles in 1980, 1994 and 2013 the other teams in Group E will not easily be written off as the road to qualification starts with a victory in the first game against Bafana Bafana in a series where group winners will automatically qualify.
On paper, the Eagles are clear favourites who also on current form are exciting to watch going by their fairy tale run in the World Cup qualifiers which has seen them in pole position to emerge group winners.
The Nigeria Football Federation has charted a comprehensive detailed camping programme for the team which begins on May 23,217 with a minimum of nineteen based foreign based players reporting to a training camp in Corsica and Paris where the team will engage the Stallions of Burkina Faso in a friendly encounter that will test the might of the players especially as the European season comes to an end before heading to Uyo,
For the South Africans the re-appointment of Stuart Baxter who makes a return to tinker the South African side clearly shows that the South African Football Association who had earlier called for shift in the date for the fixture are coming to Nigeria to get a result.
The South African national football team are currently ranked 64th according to the latest FIFA rankings and their greatest football laurel feat was winning the Nations Cup on home soil in 1996. The team has a poor record against Nigeria as both sides have met twelve times with Bafana Bafana winning only once, drawing four games and losing seven fixtures against the Super Eagles conceding twenty goals and scoring six.
The South Africans accept that the field in Group E will be a tough challenge to navigate and depend on the managerial skills of Staurt Baxter to lift this side to impressive wins beginning with the game in Uyo. They are currently level on four points with Burkina Faso in their World Cup qualifier campaign.
With the bulk of their players coming from the ABSA Premiership, the battle in Uyo will definitely be against a side like Nigeria whose multi talented youngsters still firing from all ranges will surely need this victory to spur the team for another great challenge when the African champions, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun will be in Uyo in August for a crucial World Cup qualifier.
Good enough, the venue for this very big game, the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium is ready with the state of the art facilities which has distinguished the stadium as the best in the country and new fortress of the Super Eagles with an expected 30,000 fans cheering the Eagles to victory.
Waiting for the South Africans in Uyo should also make them realise that the Eagles have rebuilt a team of goal getters with younger players hungry to play at the highest level on the continent and the world and that the failures of the last two editions where Nigeria failed to feature has now become history.
Gernot Rorh, a tactician that has genuinely interpreted his vision of his team with victories in his few games with the team knows what it means to fly past the Bafana side and will not let any stone unturned in achieving yet another milestone.
As we await the final list of players that will arrive Uyo, the countdown to this massive game has just started as history once again looks upon this great country we prepare for the march to qualification and a bigger opportunity to share greater continental glory with our biggest brand- The Super Eagles.
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