The first leg of the Nigeria and Egypt AFCON 2017 qualifier scheduled to hold next month has been moved forward by three days by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) following a request by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Sunsports reports that the NFF early this week made the request and got CAF’s approval to shift the game from March 23 to 26, with venue remaining the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna.
Demola Olajire, NFF’s media chief, who disclosed the new date to reporters noted that the new date is good for the Eagles.
He said, “It will give us room to prepare well for the match. With the new date, Oliseh and his boys would have close to one week of camping and this wouldn’t have been the case if we were to play on the 23rd which is midweek.”
Olajire further confimed that the NFF delegation sent to inspect the Kaduna stadium has approved the venue. Despite the approval, the stadium manager, Gideon Malo was, however, told to make efforts to upgrade the training pitches, provide functional generator and some other facilities before the match day.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Football Federation has promised to put measures in place to ensure the Super Eagles defeat the Pharaohs in Kaduna and go ahead to qualify for the African most prestigious tournament to avoid a repeat of the 2015 edition.
NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, yesterday promised to give Oliseh all the support he may require ahead of the Egypt double header.
He said, “We know Nigerians are still disappointed with the performance of the Eagles at the last CHAN and we cannot afford to miss out on the AFCON again after our failure to qualify for the last edition.
“We don’t want to put our mind on qualifying as one of the best losers as that could be costly at the end of the day.
“Egypt is our main rival in the group and we must do our best against them to ensure we qualify for the competition.
“On our part, we will make sure we give the technical crew and the players all the necessary support to ensure we grab the ticket.”
Oliseh had yesterday promised Nigeria to deliver at least 4 points from the maximum 6 of two-legged encounter.
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