Nigeria’s home-based senior national team, the Super Eagles held their first training session in Casablanca ahead of Sunday’s African Nations Championship final on Friday night.
The team arrived the busy city on Thursday afternoon and having trained in the morning before leaving Marrakech, the players were given a deserved rest after Wednesday’s compelling encounter against Sudan.
Friday’s training session was held at the second pitch of Stade Mohammed V, home ground of reigning CAF Champions League champions Wydad Casablanca and was supervised by the team’s coaches led by Salisu Yusuf.
Nineteen players participated fully in the session including midfielder Emeka Atuloma who sat out Wednesday’s semi-final due to a groin complaint. The other four players who were excused from the ball sessions were Daniel Itodo, Sunday Faleye and Ikechukwu Ezenwa who are all ruled out of Sunday’s final due to injury as well as the suspended Ifeanyi Ifeanyi.
The Super Eagles were boosted by the presence of Nigeria Football Federation 1st and 2nd Vice Presidents Sheyi Akinwunmi and Shehu Dikko respectively both of whom watched the session from start to finish.
The team will hold their final training session ahead of the final on Saturday evening at the venue of the final – the main pitch of the King Mohammed V Stadium – in Casablanca.
Nigeria will contest an African Nations Championship final for the first time since the inception of the competition on Sunday night. They face host nation Morocco, starting from 7pm local time (8pm WAT).
Fisayo Dairo, reporting from Casablanca.
