Youngters players to lead Eagles attack against Elephants

Ahead of the Super Eagles of Nigeria’s star match against the Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire in Sekondi this afternoon, German coach Berti Vogts may have opted for Newcastle United striker, Obafemi Martins and Uche Ikechukwu to lead the team’s attack.
Bearing any last minute changes, ‘old horse’ Yakubu Aiyegbeni, who has had a brilliant outings for his club in the recent time may have to start the match from the bench.
At the teams last work out at the Railway ground on the outskirt of Sekondi last night, both players were paired together with John Utaka still holding on to the right side of the midfield.
THISDAYSports noticed that Aiyegbeni who played on the side of Possible was a supporting striker of Martins until the coach swapped the two with Ikechukwu going the other way and the partnership worked with goals from both players.
“The percentage of Martins and Ikechuwu as the attacking duet in the opening match is very high and this is not to say that Aiyegbeni is not in the reckoning but being a power player, his introduction later in the tie will be of advantage to the team.
“Its really a big headache to the coach in picking his starting line up because all the players here are highly motivated and eager to make a mark. They are highly motivated and willing to revenge and more so pundits here are not giving us any chance to win and we have point to prove,” one of the technical officials revealed yesterday evening.
Meanwhile, Super Eagles coach Berti Vogts is already looking beyond the titanic tie against the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire as he vowed to make a point against all the contenders in the group.
“The Ivoriens will definitely fall against the expectation of most soccer pundits here and thereafter we will deal with Mali and Benin,” he commented.
The coach noted that the likes of Mali and the Squirrels of Benin could stand between the expected qualification of Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire whom many pundits may have tipped to likely qualify from group B.
“Football could be funny sometimes and when pundits rate teams based on their strengths sometimes such permutations may not come to past and I see such thing like that happening again between the two big teams here in Sekondi.
“What I’m working out is to win my opening match even with all the respect I have for the Ivoiriens after which I will plot a new strategy against the rest of the teams in the group,” the coach said.