Nigeria And Egypt In War Of Words..

The 2017 AFCON qualifier between Nigeria and Egypt is still two weeks away but the mind game and war of words between the two camps have been intensified as the battle draws near.

Super Eagles caretaker manager Samson Siasia has fired back at the Egyptian coach twice who last week said that he was afraid of the Pharaohs. Instead, Siasia has stressed that the Egyptian team should be afraid of the Eagles.

Siasia had previously said that he aims to get all the six points from Egypt in their two-legged clash in the qualifiers, and now warns his players that they cannot be afraid of Egypt.

“We are preparing very well [for the game against Egypt], some of the players have just arrived,” Siasia told  TheNFF.com

“Nigeria is not afraid. Nigeria cannot be afraid of Egypt, we are playing in home what can we be afraid of? Not even away, even in the away game we cannot be afraid. We know they are a good team and we have to be very ready. We just have to continue like that until the foreign-based players come. I told the foreign-based players that everybody can play,”

“We don’t have to be Bayern or anything, we want players who will go out there and give 120 percent on that day. We are not messing around, this is a very difficult game we are going to play. I don’t want to punish anyone, I want guys who go out there and play for us with a serious mind and achieve what we are here for. Me under pressure? I have never been under pressure before, why now?” he concluded.

It is worth noting that the 48-year-old coach has taken a disciplinary action against three of his squad players after arriving late in training without a permission by excluding them from the list for the Egypt games.

Lying top of the group on six points, following back-to-back wins over Tanzania and Chad, the Pharaohs will face Nigeria in Kaduna on 25 March before hosting the Super Eagles in Alexandria four days later.

Vanguard extract