Samson Siasia Tells Super Eagles What To Do To Win 2023 AFCON

Former Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia says the three-time African champions need to play with confidence if they hope to win the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

The Super Eagles will begin their campaign in the 2023 AFCON in Group A against Equatorial Guinea on January 14. They will play the hosts, Ivory Coast, on January 18, and end the group stage with a game against Guinea Bissau on January 22.

Most football enthusiasts believe the group shouldn’t be too difficult for the Nigeria national team to qualify from even though the host nation, Ivory Coast is in the group.

Super Eagles are not only looking forward to qualifying for the next round, they are aiming to win their fourth AFCON.

According to Samson Siasia who has played and coached the team in the past, only total confidence and playing as a unit would help the talented Super Eagles squad to win the tournament.

Siasia compared developing a successful team to the much-talked-about Super Eagles team of the 1990s, of which he was a member, noting the importance of the current crop of Super Eagles players upping their game.

“The team has good players, but they have to play as a team. If they start playing as a team, then we might have a chance to do whatever, but time is not our friend. The time is short”, Siasia said as quoted by Punch.

“If they can up their game, we never know. But we’ve got to get the right players. And let’s see. We’re not going to say they can win it or not. They can win it all. But let’s see how they improve from now on, moving forward.

“That will give us the kind of idea if they can win it. It depends on how they play in the next game. But now they are there. Everybody (other teams) is afraid. But they need to build their confidence back.”

Samson Siasia added: “The team that won the AFCON in 1994 actually played in the 1992 Nations Cup. We were there since the 80s and it took us almost a year to put up a team like that, that can compete.

“I mean, we won the Nations Cup and we can compete like that in the world. So, it took some time, years, to put up that team; a team that was very strong and won the Nations Cup.

“We need time to build a team. And we don’t have that time because time is gone. In another 10 years’ time, we should be looking at trying to win the World Cup, not just the Africa Nations Cup. So, we have to start building now.”