Keshi not intimidated by Elephants
Head coach of the Nigerian national team, Stephen Keshi is not worried about the prospect of leading his wards out to battle Ivory Coast in the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.
The Super Eagles will face the pre-tournament favourites in the pick of the quarterfinal match-ups on Sunday at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg and while Keshi knows it would be a tough game, the former Mali and Togo coach is looking forward to the encounter.
“Taking on the Ivory Coast will be a different ball game and we have to approach it with a different mentality. Everything about that game will be different because it will be different from the preparations we made for the games against Zambia, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia,” Keshi said at the post-match press conference following Nigeria’s 2-0 victory over Ethiopia on Tuesday.
The former Nigerian captain also hinted that his players will be approaching the game against the Elephants without any fear.
“There is no problem. It’s a game of 90 minutes that we are going to play here. That’s all,” he said.
The Ivory Coast have been in ominous form thus far in the competition with wins in their first two matches which saw them score five goals and sew up top spot in Group D with a game to spare.
This post was written by
A native of Gasabo, Gilbert is an alumnus of the National University of Rwanda (Faculty of Arts,Media and Social Sciences) and has 8 valuable years of experience as a freelance sports columnist for various magazines in Rwanda & Africa. Before joining as Chief Editor of Umupira, he was the Assistant Coach of an U-14 school football team in Kigali. An expert in interpreting and organizing premium sports content, he has revolutionized Umupira, making it the foremost authority on sports in Rwanda.
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