Former Super Eagles’ captain, Joseph Ikpo Yobo is relishing the opportunity of his first competitive match as an assistant coach in the Nigerian national team, and says he is equally happy to be reminded that he actually scored in the country’s last match against this Friday’s opponents.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, speaking ahead of the upcoming first leg of the double-qualifiers between Nigeria and Sierra Leone in the race to the next Africa Cup of Nations, Yobo said was excited when someone recalled that he actually scored a lone goal that gave the Eagles victory against The Leone Stars.
That was back in June 2008, when Yobo netted a crucial match-winner for Nigeria just a minute from the end of a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier away in Sierra Leone, then struck again just a week later in another 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea.
Remarkably, Yobo scored the Eagles’ winning goal for the second weekend in succession after just five minutes and ensured Nigeria kept up their 100 percent record in their bid to reach the 2010 finals in South Africa, and he is now thinking of encouraging the current set of lads to achieve similar feats with him in the dugout.
However, the former Michelin of Port Harcourt, Standard Liege of Belgium, Olympique Marseille of France, Everton and Norwich City of England as well as ex-Fernebahce of Turkey stopper acknowledged that being able to beat The Leone Stars by a lone goal means they will not come easy this Friday in Benin City.
With that memory in mind, Yobo has now stoked the embers of zeal inn the Eagles, as he declared during Mega Sports on Star 101.5 FM, Lagos that he and other coaches in the technical crew will impress it on the players to hit the ground running and go all out for victory at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City.
He admitted that winning in Benin and then getting at least a draw in the reverse fixture four days later in Freetown could jolly well put Nigeria through to Cameroon 2021, but he quickly added that it does not mean the Eagles would rest on their oars.
On the contrary, Yobo (aka Man In The Middle) posited that all the players will aim to build on the gains they got from last month’s international friendlies against Algeria and Tunisia, even as they know that points, not just pride, will be at stake this time.
Yobo recounted: “We are hoping to win this match, but we know it will not come easy. We never had it easy against Sierra Leone before. Someone even told me that I was the one who scored the only goal with which we beat them the last time.
“That is why we are going to prepare very well for this game. We are thinking about getting four points from both matches, but we must concentrate on this one on Friday for now.
“We had some good results in our friendly matches last month, but that is different from this one, because there we no points at stake in those games. This time there are points at stake and we want to qualify for the Nations Cup.
“Once we win these two matches, we should be almost through. In fact, from our calculations, we just need to win at home and get a draw away for us to qualify; but that does not mean we are taking Sierra Leone for granted.”
