AFCON2021: I’ll Bring In Fresh Legs Against Guinea-Bissau – Eguavoen

Austin Eguavoen

Super Eagles interim coach, Austin Eguavoen, has disclosed that a few changes would be made to the starting line-up against Guinea-Bissau in their final Group D on Wednesday, January 19.

This comes after the team defeated Egypt and Sudan at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon

The coach also admitted that his side has not been clinical enough in front of goal in the tournament.

The Eagles scored four goals and conceded one but Eguavoen is not pleased with his side’s wastefulness in front of the goal.

Eguavoen made the statement during an interview with PUNCH Sports Extra.

He said: “Sometimes scoring goals is still a problem. It’s in the goal area that we have missed a lot of chances. We are not clinical enough in front of goal; we missed a couple of sitters in the games we’ve played. We gave Sudan some chances to score.”

He went to explain that his decision to retain the same squad for the  Egypt and Sudan games was due to the short time he had to prepare the team for the tournament. But with Nigeria already guaranteed a spot in the knockout stage, Eguavoen, will bring in fresh faces against the Bissau-Guineans.

Eguavoen said, “I didn’t want to take the risk, which was why I retained the same starting line-up.

“Coaching of this team started on January 6 and it was difficult to take the risk because it was better to play with a team that has been together for some time.

“We banked on players that knew themselves. Everybody in this team has a chance to play in this tournament, so with qualification secured, we will be giving some players the opportunity to play in the next game.”

On his side’s chances of lifting the title, he added, “There are 24 teams here and there are chances for teams to make it to the second round.

“Every team at this tournament is good enough to win this trophy, whoever comes our way we will be ready to play them. Whoever wants to be champions must be ready to play any team.''

The Eagles will face one of the third-place teams from Group B, E, or F in the round of 16 in Garoua.