Super Eagles midfielder John Ogu wants the team to start today’s African Nations Cup, AFCON qualifier against Chad on a good note and maintain the momentum in subsequent matches, so as to avoid the pitfalls of the last qualifying series which culminated in Nigeria missing out on Equatorial Guinea 2015.
Nigeria lost her opening game of the 2015 AFCON qualifiers 3-2 to Congo at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar, a result which the Super Eagles failed to recover from as the team crashed out of the qualifiers after another draw with South Africa in the last group game.
The Hapoel Be’er Sheva player feels the best way to avoid a recurrence is to start on a positive note and send a statement to other countries in the group.
“I don’t want to dwell on the past, but it has to be used to look at the future,” Ogu said.
“We have to start the qualifiers with a strong statement against Chad. We don’t have a choice, we have to make Nigerians happy again,”he added.
Nigeria are in Group G of the 2017 AFCON qualifiers alongside Egypt, Tanzania and Chad.
Ogu, who is coming off a decent season with Hapoel Be’er Sheva where he played 40 matches in all competitions scoring fours goals, doesn’t want to bother with what is ahead but will rather concentrate on the Chad game.
“Yes, I’m aware of the teams but I won’t bother with that yet. We are focused on the Chad game and we will take one game after the other,”the 26-year-old said.
“All the teams in the group will be tough. We will treat all games the same way. Our main focus now is to handle Chad and then move on to the next one.
“The boys (Eagles) are ready for the game. Camp has been good and wonderful and we are raring to go,”he added.a