Former national team captains, Daniel Amokachi and Joseph Yobo are confident that the Super Eagles will bounce back to winning ways after their poor start in the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.
The three time African champions were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Lesotho in their opening fixture at the Godswill Akpabio stadium last Thursday.
Ahead of their matchday two encounter against Zimbabwe on Sunday in Kigali, Rwanda, the duo who won the AFCON title as a player in 1994 and 2013 expressed confidence in the team’s talent to secure qualification for the 2026 edition of the tournament to be co-hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico.
In separate chats with SUNDAY PUNCH, the AFCON winners also added that Jose Peseiro’s side possess the quality to land a fourth AFCON title.
“A lot of people have been having some doubts about Thursday’s result against Lesotho but football is football,” Amokachi said during a ceremony to unveil the Eagles ‘Let’s Do It Again’ mantra in their bid to win a fourth AFCON title at next year’s edition in Ivory Coast.
“The beautiful thing about football is, as far as you have quality in your team, a good day will definitely come. I’m a huge fan when it comes to this generation.
“When the tough is tough, we strike. That’s what makes us move as a country, country may enter one stage but our determination and courage helps us move. Let’s do it again. Let’s do it again.
Yobo who led Nigeria to its third AFCON title at the 2013 edition in South Africa also said, “You can have talent, talent push you to a certain level, but teamwork and intelligence makes you win the championship,”Yobo said.
“Basically, talent makes you win the game but teamwork and intelligence makes you win the championship.
“We’re talking about championship here not just about one game. I remember the NFF president has spoke about the game on Thursday, that’s just one game, it’s like a marathon.
“It’s a qualifying round, it’s not a knockout game. So what happened yesterday, like he rightly said, I think it was good for the morale of the players to understand that we can’t make any further mistakes from this point but it wasn’t a bad game.”
Credit: punchng.com
