Victor Moses and Mikel Obi
Super
Eagles arrived in Kaduna at sunset on Sunday, for Tuesday’s friendly
match against Burkina Faso. The players led by Stephen Keshi hit the
city without Chelsea’s Mikel Obi and Victor Moses of Liverpool.
They are the only players of the squad
that played against Malawi on Saturday in a World Cup qualifying match
who will not face the Burkinabes. No names were announced immediately as
replacements for the two and it was not stated if the Eagles would go
on without such replacements for the game billed for the Ahmadu Bello
Stadium.
The Eagles Media Officer Ben Alaiya
confirmed that both players were cleared to return to base by Keshi.
Mikel, we learnt got a slight calf knock in the weekend game that
requires attention while Moses who left for England immediately after
the Saturday match in Calabar was excused to enable him tie up things at
Liverpool. The attacker crossed from Chelsea to Liverpool just last
week on a year-long loan.
Burkina Faso who were incidentally the
team Nigeria defeated to win the African cup last February also
qualified for the final stage of the World Cup qualifiers. Despite being
docked points for fielding an ineligible player earlier in the
campaign, the Etalons, as they are called, picked up efficiently,
winning in Niger and Congo-Brazzaville before beating Gabon 1-0 in
Ouagadougou on Saturday to finish top of their group.
The General Secretary of the Nigeria
Football Federation Musa Amadu, said on Sunday, “The Nigeria Football
Federation has arranged the match against Burkina Faso to prepare the
Super Eagles for the final elimination round, which comes up in October
and November. We expect to play our first leg away and then play the
return at home.
“We are truly delighted to be in the
final round, and we believe the Eagles will do the nation proud by
picking one of the five tickets to represent Africa at next year’s FIFA
World Cup in Brazil.”
If there are no changes at the top of
the African table in the FIFA rankings to be released on Thursday, Cote
d’Ivoire, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria and Cape Verde (who shocked Tunisia in
Rades) will be in the Pot A (seeded teams) for the 10-team final
elimination round draw. The event will hold in Cairo on Monday next
week. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Senegal and Ethiopia will be in Pot
B.
The Cameroonians grabbed the last of the 10 slots on Sunday.
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