Afcon 2023: Super Eagles to play Guinea’s Syli Nationale behind closed doors

The Super Eagles will play their two test games in Abu Dhabi behind closed doors.

Jose Peseiro’s side will take on a local side in their first game on Sunday.

They will take on their fellow West African, Guinea, in their second and final build-up game on Monday.

The two matches will kick off at 4 pm local time (1 pm Nigerian time).

The Super Eagles set up camp in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations this week.

The three-time African champions are expected to arrive in Abidjan next Wednesday.

Head Coach José Peseiro has the opportunity to put to the crucible different patterns and tactics against quality opposition, only seven days before the three-time champions’ opening game against Equatorial Guinea’s Nzalang National inside Abidjan’s Stade Alassane Ouattara

Nigeria’s Eagles are in Group A of the four-week, 24-nation finals alongside host nation Cote d’Ivoire and Africa’s other two Guinean nations – Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau.

The Syli Nationale was one of Africa’s strongest teams in the 1970s and 1980s, winning the silver medals at the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations in Ethiopia, and giving the so-called big teams a good run for their money at the Africa Cup and in FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

The Eagles pipped Syli Nationale 1-0 in a group phase encounter at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt. Far back in 1981, Syli Nationale held the Eagles to a 1-1 draw in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Conakry, and in Lagos, Nigeria won with a long-range Henry Nwosu strike to the far corner of Abdoulaye Keita’s goal.

Monday’s encounter has been scheduled for the Bani Yas Stadium, and is sure to slightly open a window into the mind of Coach Peseiro and how he intends to line out his army when Africa’s flagship football championship begins next weekend.

Twenty-four of Nigeria’s 25-man squad assembled in the Gulf earlier in the week and have been training ahead of the continental house party, with forward Kelechi Iheanacho hampered by injury and set to join the group in Lagos on Tuesday evening, ahead of departure to the Ivorian capital on Wednesday, 10th January.

Nigeria is seeking a fourth African title (after wins in 1980, 1994, and 2013) which will put them at par with West African arch-rivals Ghana, and leave only Egypt (seven wins) and Cameroon (five wins) ahead of them in the inverted pyramid of glory.

After their opener against Equatorial Guinea on 14th January, the Super Eagles will confront the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire on 18th January, before a final group phase clash with the Wild Dogs of Guinea Bissau on 22nd January. Their first two matches will be held at the brand-new Stade Alassane Ouattara, while the date with the Wild Dogs will be at the Stade Houphouet-Boigny – where the Eagles tackled Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions in the final of the 1984 Africa Cup of Nations.