Afcon 2023: “It will be a miracle to win it” – Waidi Akanni on Nigeria’s chance

Jose Peseiro had announced his final 25-man list and the team will depart for a one-week training camp in Abu Dhabi before proceeding to Abidjan, where they will face Equatorial Guinea in their opening Group A match on January 14, 2024, and later Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau.

However, Akanni, a member of the 1985 bronze medal-winning FIFA U20 World Youth Championship team, insisted that the three-time champions are not adequately prepared for the tournament.

“My expectations are theproceedinghenever Super Eagles play,” he said via News Agency of Nigeria.

“They have become very unreliable. So, I won’t expect much from them because I don’t want to be disappointed.

“Winning AFCON will be a miracle for Nigeria. It would be presumptuous of me to expect Super Eagles to come out top at the championship.

“One of the elements of a team is predictability; I can’t predict them because I don’t know their pedigree.

“I believe I’m not the only one who feels this way about the team; a lot needs to be worked on in the midfield, defense, and goalkeeping departments of the team.

“I think the coaches should have allowed some home-based players to compete for some positions, not only goalkeepers.

“It has always been the same for AFCON with African countries because of the European season. It’s difficult to get a full house of players as a group until about a week before AFCON.”