CHAN: Eagles off to Morocco today

Trophy–hunting home-based team will fly out of the country  on Monday  night for the 5th  African Nations Championship taking place in Morocco, 13th  January – 4th  February 2018.

A few days ago, Head Coach Salisu Yusuf named a 23 –man team to fly Nigeria’s flag at the finals, where the 2014 bronze medallists will play 2014 champions Libya, Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea in Group C.

Team Administrator, Dayo Enebi Achor said at  the weekend that the delegation will fly aboard a Turkish Airline flight from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and connect Rabat from Istanbul  on Tuesday  morning. “The team will train for a few days in Rabat before heading to Tangier on Friday, 12th  January,” Achor explained/ The Ikechukwu Ezenwa –captained squad will take on Rwanda (hosts of the last edition of the competition two years ago) at the Stade Ibn Batouta on Monday, 15th  January, starting from  7.30pm  (8.30pm  Nigeria time), before games against Libya at the same venue on Friday, 19th  January (starting from  4.30pm;  5.30pm  Nigeria time) and Equatorial Guinea in Agadir on Tuesday, 23rdJanuary (starting  7pm  Morocco time;  8pm  Nigeria time). Nigeria failed to qualify for the final competition of the first two editions of the CHAN, losing to Ghana in 2008 (ahead of Cote d’Ivoire 2009) and beaten on aggregate by Niger Republic in 2010 (ahead of Sudan 2011). The Class of 2014 led by Stephen Keshi (of blessed memory) qualified after edging Cote d’Ivoire 4-3 on aggregate, and then finished third in South Africa. In 2015, the team coached by  Sunday  Oliseh also defeated Burkina Faso to qualify for the finals, but lost out at group phase in the finals in Rwanda few months later. To reach the finals this time, Salisu Yusuf’s wards edged Benin Republic 2-1 on aggregate.