Super Eagles assistant coach, Imama Amapakabo believes there was no easy group in the draws for the 2018 African Nations Championships conducted in Rabat on Friday night.
The draws pit 2014 third placed side, Nigeria in Group C against 2014 winners Libya, 2016 hosts Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea.
“We are in a competition and we should be prepared to face any team,” Amapakabo told www.aclsports.com on Saturday.
“We knew that there were other qualifiers too and so we were prepared to face whoever is drawn against us”.
Many football followers in Nigeria have welcomed Friday’s draws as a fairly comfortable one for the Super Eagles.
While tacitly agreeing, the El-Kanemi Warriors head coach sounded a note of warning to the team not to live in such fool’s paradise.
“We have found ourselves in a group that we believe is not very hard for us to come out from on paper.
“But I think in football, there are no minnows any longer. Like we were drawn in the World Cup qualifiers against teams that people think we will not be able to qualify but here we are going through it unbeaten.
“Every game differs from one another and it all depends on the approach to each situation,” added Imama.
With the new Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season not starting until the opening weekend of CHAN itself, Nigeria’s CHAN Eagles will have the chance to prepare themselves in the NPFL Super Four tournament in the middle of December.
The team will come up against the four continental representatives of the NPFL next season – Plateau United, MFM FC, Enyimba and Akwa United.
‘It’s a good development. At least it will allow us play a couple of games and be in competition mood before the tournament. It’s a good competition for us,” submitted Imama.
The 5th African Nations Championships will hold in Morocco from January 13 to February 4, 2018.
