By Daily Sports on July 28, 2016
The last game in Group G of the AFCON 2017 qualifiers may be inconsequential as Egypt has already qualified, but don’t tell that to Tanzania.
The East Africans travel to Lagos where they will face Nigeria between September the 2nd and 4th for the dead-rubber fixture and are leaving no stones unturned to pile more misery on the Super Eagles who have slipped to 70th on the Fifa rankings – their worst in almost five decades.
The Taifa Stars (in comparison jumped from 136 to 123) will move into a one-week residential training camp in Dar es Salaam on August 1 and a day later Stars coach Charles Boniface Mkwasa will name the players who form the squad that will travel.
Mkwasa, popularly known as 'Master,' said the camp aims to prepare players psychologically and technically for the away game. He said Stars will then regroup for another camp at the end of August, just a few days before the team's departure to Lagos.
Having outplayed the Nigerians in their first meeting, many, including the coach himself, believe Nigeria were very lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw, and thinks his team is quite capable of upsetting the West Africans who will be playing in Lagos for the first time in almost two decades.
The Lagos fans are notoriously fickle and have been known to change sides in the middle of the game, based on quality of play rather than mere sentiment or national pride. So without a doubt there will be added pressure on the Eagles and on current coach Yusuf’s coming out party after winning his previous two games away in France against Mali and Luxembourg in Luxembourg.
Mkwasa knows this and will certainly have his team play to the galley while trying to breech the Eagles' back four. Their TP Mazambe star Samatta was as slippery as a banana peel coated in oil in the in the Dar es Salaam game and while the Eagles’ defenders simply could not get a grip on him, only poor execution prevented him from scoring at least twice. He will certainly again be a handful in a game that counts for nothing but pride.
•Culled from supersports.com. Photo shows Lagos fans watching a big screen at the stadium.
Source Daily Sports
Posted July 28, 2016
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