My brand-new Eagles will beat Egypt – Siasia

Nigeria coach Samson Siasia has said he now has a brand-new team who will beat Egypt on Friday to get their AFCON 2017 qualifying campaign back on track.

A very confident Siasia said for the past one year the Super Eagles have not been playing good football, but all that will change on Friday.

“Our fans may be afraid because of the way the Eagles have been playing in the past, but this is a brand-new Super Eagles. This is a crop of players I have absolute confidence in and I am sure the players will beat Egypt to put smiles on the faces of football-loving Nigerians,” Siasia said.

“We all know that if you want to conquer an enemy you have to know the enemy. So, we have watched some of the videos of the Egyptian team with all our players. So, we know their strength and weaknesses.

“So, we need to do what we supposed to do. We need to play to instructions. We know where we are coming from. We don’t need to know too much about the Egyptians, we need to know more and work more on ourselves.

“We need to create chances and score goals. We want to make Nigerians proud. This is a new Super Eagles team.

“I know how much you people feel about the other Super Eagles team. Trust me these guys are ready to play for us. Let just give them the confidence and the support they need to make sure we carry the day.”

He said the absence of injured defenders Kenneth Omeruo and Leon Balogun will not affect the team.

“We have defenders who can play well for this country. We have injuries in football. The players we have are not make-shifts. They are players who are capable of holding their own in any game. They are players who we can call on to play and they will make Nigerians proud.

“I would say defending starts from attack not from defence. So if we do our job well right from the attack, the defenders won’t be over-stretched.”

The team’s trainings have been watched by thousands of fans and the coach said he hopes they turn up in their numbers to cheer the Eagles to victory.

“We have been working very hard in the training sessions to make Nigerians proud at the end of our game against Egypt. But we want our fans to come to support us so that they would fire us up for the game,” he urged.