Afcon 2023: Babangida warns Peseiro and Eagles that the tournament is not a tea party

Former Nigerian international Tijani Babangida has sounded a note of caution to the Super Eagles and the coaching crew over any thought that lightweight teams will be pushovers at the 2023 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cote d’Ivoire.

Nigeria has been dubbed as one of the favourites to win the tournament kicking off on January 13, 2024.

However, recent results have shown that the three-time African champions can struggle against the so-called minnows.

The Eagles suffered a 1-0 defeat to Guinea-Bissau during the 2023 AFCON qualifiers at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja earlier this year before exacting revenge in the return leg.

The country that missed out on the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar after losing the playoff to Ghana on the away goals rule has also not begun its campaign to reach the United States, Canada, and Mexico as expected.

They had to come from behind against Lesotho at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo and against Zimbabwe at a neutral ground in Rwanda.

The results have left the Eagles in third place in Group C of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers after two matches.

In an interview with Brila FM on Thursday, Babangida, a gold medalist in football at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games warned the Super Eagles against underating any team.

He stressed that the national teams, who in the past were once considered minnows, have greatly improved.

The former Ajax Amsterdam star stated that the level of competitiveness of the competition in 2023 requires the selection of the right players.

“Whenever the Super Eagles play these days, I do see their lapses sometimes, we can see that the game in Africa and the world has changed,” he said.

“In the past, you can write off some countries and say these are the favorites.

“But in today’s football, you can see that the Super Eagles struggle with counties in the size of Niger Republic, they are no more pushovers.

“If you see what is happening, we have our issues, as you can see in our World Cup qualifiers, we struggled to get a 1-1 at home, and we struggled to get another 1-1 away.

“So, you cannot just give our country anything to think that the Nations Cup is a playground.

“We have to buckle up, we have the players and must get the right players to camp if we hope to excel at next year’s Nation’s Cup,” Babangida added.