Super Eagles’ captain, Ahmed Musa has come out with a hearty promise that he and his colleagues will not play for a draw this Tuesday against visiting Cape Verde in their last group match of Africa’s qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, e360hubs.com reports.
Although the Eagles need just a draw to reach the knockout and final stage of the African elimination series, and they will be at home against the minnows inside Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, Musa stressed that they will play to win.
The former Kano Pillars, VV Van Venlo of Netherlands, CSKA Moscow of Russia, Leicester City of England and Al-Shaddah of Saudi Arabia attacker-cum-winger, who is now based in Turkey, added that the three-time African champions want to qualify in style.
With that target in mind, Musa further declared that the Eagles aim to keep the momentum going from last Saturday’s 2-0 win away to Liberia, though played in Tangier, Morocco, as they believe the winning aura would eventually help them in the knockout stage.
Aside a careless 1-0 loss at home to Central African Republic in their third match of the ongoing qualification series, the Eagles have now won a total of four matches both home and away, to the extent that they are already being rated high among the five teams from the continent that will eventually make it to Qatar 2022.
Musa, though, is not looking that way for now, as the Eagles’ skipper, who became Nigeria’s most capped player ever on Saturday, when he got his 102nd international appearance at full senior level, reasoned that they must for now concentrate fully on how to beat Cape Verde.
He stated as much on arrival from Morocco, as he and other members of the Eagles’ delegation flew into Lagos on Sunday morning aboard a chartered Air Peace Embraer E-195 E2 jet, following their four-and-half hour flight.
The aircraft touched down at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos at 7.30am and the three-time African champions moved to their lodgings at Eko Hotel, Victory Island, with just few hours of rest preceding the resumption of preparations with a gym session.
That came in the evening, when the players trooped out for their normal recovery session after a long flight and to limber up ahead of their first full training session on Monday at the venue of Tuesday’s match.
Meanwhile, their victory in Tangier means the Eagles have won all their away matches in this qualifying series, and need only a draw against The Blue Sharks on Tuesday to progress into the final knockout round of African series for Qatar 2022.
They have scored two goals in each of their away games, with a 2-1 defeat of The Sharks and 2-0 victories over both Central African Republic and Liberia; such that Musa is confident he and his pals will keep their winning aura going with another victorious outing this Tuesday.
Musa, who went on as an 84th minute substitute during Saturday’s game and scored a penalty two minutes into added time, declared: “No one is thinking of a draw.
“It is a must-win match, as far as we are concerned. The mindset is to win and reach the final round of the World Cup series without any story.”
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