AFCON 2023: Ex-Eagles Star Highlights Importance Of Quality Selection
Former Nigeria International defender, Waidi Akanni, has urged Super Eagles’ technical team to ensure they identify and select only efficient players that can deliver at the next edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament, scheduled to hold in Cote d’Ivoire from January 13th – 11th February, 2024.
Nigeria qualified for the tournament with one game to spare after defeating Sierra-Leone 3-2 at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia.
Akanni urged the technical crew to focus on building a team rather than focusing on individuals. He said that selection of players was vital to the execution of the competition and as such must be based on merit.
“The Head Coach Jose Peseiro and the technical committee should work together in identifying quality players for selection; it is of advantage if we have quality selection on the bench,” Akanni said in an interview in Lagos on Wednesday.
“The team needs to find more playmakers, the last game showed the lack of quality passes to attackers and more importantly, depth in the back line is also missing. All these should be addressed.”
The Super Eagles of Nigeria tops Group A of the 2023 AFCON qualifiers with 12 points from five games, while Guinea Bissau are in second place with 10 points. Sierra Leone are in third with 5 points, with Sao Tome and Principe at the bottom of the table with one (1) point.
Nigeria will face Sao Tome and Principe in the final group qualifying round.
