“We Will Play Kenya With Our Best Team” – Keshi

Super Eagles celebrating AFCON victory

The Super Eagles of Nigeria will today face the Harambee Stars of Kenya in a World Cup qualifying match in Calabar, Cross River State.

As much as the eagles are expected by many to beat Kenya following their run of late, the Harambee stars won’t be push overs for the Eagles. Kenya may not have many stars in their team, but a midfield led by Victor Wanyama who plays for Celtic FC of Scotland may do Nigeria a lot of damage if care is not taken.

“Nigeria may be African champions but that will not count. It is always 11 players facing each other on both sides when two teams get onto the field of play,” Victor Wanyama said concerning Saturday’s game.

“We will go out and play against them like we had always planned to,” he added.

Brown Ideye who also proved his worth like many other current Eagles players believes Nigeria has all it takes to beat Kenya.

“The Eagles will take all points on Saturday. This is not to say the Kenyans are push overs,” Ideye said.

“As it is now, we don’t know their plans so also they do not know our plans. I know they would be afraid of us as African champions, we might panic a little because we don’t know what they are planning.”

Nigeria face Kenya this afternoon at the U.J Esuene Stadium in Calabar, where they will have a chance to prove to Africa and the rest of the world that winning the African Cup of Nation, AFCON, was no fluke.

Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has however played down talks Nigeria will beat Kenya easily, as he maintained the Eagles will play against Kenya with its best players, and give everything to win the match.

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“If past results really count then we wouldn’t even be playing Kenya. Remember they have a new coach and every coach comes with a different approach, mentality, team ethics and style of play. So we have respect for them and we will play this game with our best players,” Keshi said

The two teams last met in a friendly game in Abuja in March 2011 where the Super Eagles won by 3 goals to nil.

Nigeria also won the last competitive game between the two sides which ended 3-2 in Nigeria’s favour in a World Cup qualifying game in Nairobi in 2009.