TheCable

Yusuf Salisu, head coach of the home-based Super Eagles, says his team must defeat Equatorial Guinea to progress to the quarter-final of the African Nations Championship.

He described the match as a “difficult hurdle”.

At the 2016 tournament, the CHAN Eagles claimed four points in their first two matches but crashed out after losing to 1-0 to Guinea in the last group game.

The team will aim to avert a similar situation at the ongoing tournament, having garnered four points in two games.

“I think the most important thing in group games is for us to qualify to the next round of the tournament, we want to reach the quarter-final and we know for the team to progress we need to score goals,” Salisu said.

“However, the numbers of goals doesn’t matter at this level, accumulated points is the most important.

“It will be a tough game against Equatorial Guinea, the desired result will not come easy. They are playing for pride and such opposition are always difficult to beat.

“They have their pride to protect and they will fight hard not to lose all three matches. The game is important to us, this is the difficult hurdle in the group stage and we must win to progress.

“They are not a bad team, against Rwanda they contested the game very well and conceded very late in the game.

“They won’t go down easily, they only had a bad tournament which can happen to any team.

“We have to motivate the players, they have to fight all through the game and we hope everything will favour us.”

Midfielder, Emeka Atuloma, says the team is united and that the players have a mutual ambition to win.

He said the players have been supportive of each other, regardless of who plays on match day

“The team is a family like. It has been a united bond,” Atuloma told TheCable.

“We are looking for wins and whoever plays knows that we are behind them. It doesn’t really matter whether you play or not, as long as who plays, plays to win. As a team, we support each other.”

The Eagles will face Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday.