The Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, on Monday urged the home-based Super Eagles to win the Championship of African Nations trophy in Rwanda.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the championship, which begins on Saturday, is scheduled to hold from January 16 to February 7.
Dalung, who gave the advice in an interview with NAN in Abuja, also urged the team to sustain the tempo the country’s national teams had built at international competitions in recent time.
He said: “We expect them to maintain the tempo of the victory that the players have set.
“I will be in Rwanda myself to be in solidarity with them and to encourage them.
“So, what I will say will be better said to them directly when I get to Rwanda.
“But sending it in advance will be equivalent to inviting your enemy to inspect your armoury before you go to war the following day.”
In the same vein, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has urged the home-based Eagles not to disappoint Nigerians at the championship but to work hard and surpass the country’s CHAN record.
Pinnick said: “I expect to continue the success run.
“I spoke to (Coach Sunday) Oliseh this morning.
“We talk every day.
“I asked him if there were technical challenges and he said no that the most important thing in the field, which you can quote me, is that the boys are very enthusiastic.
“The boys have seen the run of very successful events in the past and now they are ready to go and glow.”
NAN reports that Nigeria finished third at the last CHAN edition held in South Africa.
Libya won that championship, while Ghana finished in second place.
This year’s edition of the championship is the fourth since it was introduced in 2009.
Meanwhile, the home-based Super Eagles on Monday defeated Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 in a pre-CHAN friendly played at the Tuks Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa.
Ifeanyi Mathew got the goal for the Eagles on the stroke of half time to give the team the much needed victory and a confidence booster ahead of the championship.
The Sunday Oliseh-tutored team had been forced to a 1-1 draw by Angola last week after a 3-0 defeat of South Africa Premier League side, Amatuks.
NAN reports that the Nigerian team expected to arrive in Kigali on January 15, is drawn in Group C alongside Niger Republic, Tunisia, and Guinea.
NAN.
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