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JOHANNESBURG. — Nigeria head coach, Stephen Keshi, has deflected attention away from his African soccer champions to claim that the Ethiopians have earned themselves respect.
The African champions will face Ethiopia’s Walya Antelopes in the first leg of the 2014 Fifa World Cup qualification play-off in Addis Ababa tomorrow.
Keshi has acknowledged that the East Africans will not be easy opponents for his men.
The Nigeria manager is also wary of underrating the Ethiopians, who football enthusiasts believe are a much favourable opponent for the Super Eagles compared to the like of Egypt or Senegal.
“For them to have reached the last 10 for the World Cup playoff is no mean feat and we have huge respect for their achievement. It only shows that their game at international level has continued to grow and you don’t want to take such a team for a ride. But we will play to our strength to earn a result from this game,” Keshi told supersport.com.
The former Mali and Togo coach pointed out that the gap between the big football-playing nations and the small ones on the continent is being bridged by the day.
He added that it is on that premise the Super Eagles will give all of their attention to Ethiopia as “this is the most important match right now.”
“In football today, every country is growing and they are being represented well by their national teams. It’s not going to be business as usual as the game has evolved and other nations we never thought of are now competing well and up there with the big footballing nations especially in Africa these days.
“We won’t take our eyes off this game until we’re done with it because we feel it will not be same Ethiopia that we defeated at the Africa Cup of Nations. The truth is that Ethiopia will be different this time because they’ve grown in confidence since the last edition of the African Cup of Nations.
“I know and the team knows that there are no easy games any longer. But for us this is the most important match right now and we will give it our best attention,” said Keshi.
Keshi has not lost a competitive match to an African team since he became Nigeria head coach in November 2011. — Supersport.com
Online Reporter