Daily Trust Sunday

Areas Eagles61 should work on before Algeria clash – Akpoborie

Musa, Iheanacho, up for CAF African Player of the Year award

- By Mansur Abubakar

F62 ormer Super Eagles striker Jonathan Akpoborie told Fever Pitch that some of the areas the senior national team have to work on before taking on Algeria in their second World Cup qualifying game next month include the full backs ‘drives’ and link between defence and midfield.

In a chat, the former Hansa Rostock player said Gernot Rohr’s team have a very good chance of finishing the acclaimed group of death as top dogs if they can maintain discipline and play to their strength.

“If you look at the game against Zambia, the Chipolopol­os played too many passes through to their number 9 which gave us a lot of trouble; we (Nigeria) need to curb that. Plus the full backs are not yet fluent with their drives down the lines, and not forgetting the fact that there are little holes in between our Defense and midfield.” Akpoborie noted.

The ex-player cum businessma­n also spoke about minimising individual mistakes which he believes could disrupt weeks of trainings and eventually lead to bad results.

“An individual mistake especially at the back is another thing that has to be minimized because it could spoil all the hard work.” He concluded

Meanwhile, Algeria midfielder, Adlene Guedioura, has said he is looking forward to meeting his Watford teammates turned ‘enemies’, Odion Ighalo and Isaac Success, when the Super Eagles host Algeria on matchday 2 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier in November in Uyo.

“I said to them I won’t talk to them until next month because they are my enemies now,” the 30-year-old Guedioura told watfordfc.com.

“Of course it’s a joke, but it will be a pleasure to play against them. It’s special to meet teammates who you are used to training with every day and to play against them in one game, so it’s quite good and strange at the same time.

“It’s going to be an important game for us. I’m sure we’ll have a good welcome from the Nigeria people and from Ighalo and Isaac, but when we go into the pitch they’re not going to be my teammates or my friends any more. It’s going to be a tough game and I can’t wait for it.”

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