Chukwu says playing against African opponents better than playing against Luxembourg

Christian Chukwu, a former Super Eagles Chief Coach, on Wednesday in Abuja faulted the choice of Luxembourg by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as opponents for the Super Eagles.

Chukwu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that since the Eagles were preparing for a qualification campaign in Africa, the team only needed to face African opponents to keep fit.

“I prefer that we should be playing against Africans opponent, because we are qualifying in Africa and we are not qualifying in Europe,’’ he said.

The former Green Eagles defender and captain however acknowledged that it was a situation that could not have been helped.

“But, getting these matches are not easy because they are difficult to get,’’ he said.

Chukwu nonetheless acknowledged that the two friendly matches the Super Eagles played were okay.

“The matches, I understand, were to keep the players in shape. The team coordinated itself well, both the old and the new players, and they did Nigeria proud with the 3-1 win against Luxembourg,’’ he said.

NAN reports that the Super Eagles played their second friendly match in four days against the Red Lions of Luxembourg at the Stade Josy Barthélemy in Luxembourg City on Tuesday.

Their first friendly match was against the Malian team on Friday at Rouen in France.

The former Green Eagles captain said the Super Eagles really utilised their chances and the team was well coordinated with the new players brought into the team.

“The essence of this is to keep the boys fit and to keep the team together, win or lose. But we have seen how they played and they coordinated themselves and won 3-1.

“And they made use of their chances and brought the new players to join the old ones and that boosted the team’s performances.

“I knew we will not lose, but if it happens we will definitely come back to see where we have made mistakes and look at where the players have not performed well or the new players have not lived up to expectations for us to reorganise,” he said

NAN reports that Kelechi Iheanacho’s goal gave the Eagles a 1-0 win over Mali.

Goals from Brown Ideye, Iheanacho and Odion Ighalo helped the team to the 3-1 win over Luxembourg.