AFCON 2021: Eguavoen asseses Eagles readiness for Egypt

Super Eagles head-coach Augustine Eguavoen has assessed team’s readiness for the Pharaoh of Egypt after watching his side play on Friday.

The new coach had the opportunity to see his team play together in a competitive game for the first time at Roumdé Adjia Stadium.

A goal either halves from Ahmed Musa and Samuel Chukwueze gave Nigeria a hard earned 2-0 win against Coton Sport FC de Garoua.

And Eguavoen seems to have seen enough to rate his team’s readiness – understand where they are and what they need to improve.

“The ball movement at the beginning was faster but as game progressed we saw fatigue setting in and the movement become a bit slower,” Eguavoen told NFF TV.

“But in front of goal, we’re too few that’s something we have to work on. Crosses are coming well, ball possession is always good but arriving the box with fewer players, is not too good and we are going to work on this in the next few days.

“The game is impressive that we played this set of team that required another set of eleven players to see how the team can fair under the weather condition. We struggle a little bit with the weather but in terms of ball possession and movement, I think we’re very impressive.

“Winning this game is a very good thing for us.

“In the first half, We missed couple of chances and scores only one goal. We also missed a couple of chances in the second half and scores another one goal.

“The result is Nigeria 2-0 but as we know it’s a warm-up match and we have to play safe but however I think we are impressed with everyone that played.”

The Eagles will play their first AFCON 2021 game against Pharaoh of Egypt on Tuesday.