Eagles lock horns with Bafana Bafana, Nigerians predict winner

BY Femi Atolagbe
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As Super Eagles will today lock horns with Bafana Bafana of South Africa in a quarter final of the African Cup of Nations in Egypt, football enthusiasts in Ondo State have expressed optimism that Nigeria will qualify for the semi-finals.

Eagles had defeated Indomitable Lion of Cameroon 3-2 in the round of 16 enrout  today’s quarter final match against South Africa who dumped the host nation Egypt out of the competition.

The match between the two African giants will be decided at the Cairo International Stadium by 8pm tonight.

The two African football giants met 13 times of which Super Eagles won six, drew five and lost two of the previous matches against Bafana Bafana.

Speaking to Sporting Hope on the match, the General Manager of the Ondo State Sports Council, Mr Wande Fabuluje said, Nigeria will not only defeat South Africa they will come home with the trophy .

Fabuluje added that Eagles, having defeated Cameroon in the round of 16, he said that he saw determination in the Rohr tutored  side, saying Nigeria coming back from 2-1 down to snatch victory against Indomitable Lions was a result of hard working.

Also a retired Director and former organiser of Shell Cup, Samuel Patani, said the match against Bafana Bafana could go either way, saying South Africans are more enthusiastic than the Eagles looking at their match against Pharaoh of Egypt.

He identified defence line as Eagles weak link, saying if the defence can be Marshal properly and form a strong curb against the attacking playing South Africans we will have the day.

“If we didn’t allow them to go through our defence, I know that our strikers will do well because we are good in midfield, if the attackers are well feed with balls, especially Ighalo and Iwobi I’m sure they will convert chances to goals.

Also speaking, a football enthusiast, Mr Remigius Akinbinu averred that Super Eagles will defeat South Africa, saying Eagles has a good football history over them.

Akinbinu said, Eagles greatest undoing  is to underrate their opponent , which he said won’t happened again, because they had learnt their lesson against Madagascar.

He differed on the expression of many Nigerians that Eagles defence were a little porous against Cameroon, saying you can’t play a team like Cameroon with Clarence Seedorf philosophy of attacking football and you won’t concede when you are scoring against them.

The advantage we had was we scored more than they scored against us, which should be enough for us.