Manu Garba, the former Coach of the Flying Eagles, on Saturday advised the Super Eagles to put their lost behind and focus on the return leg in Egypt.
Garba in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the Eagles should concentrate in their attack because the second match is a must win.
“Now Egypt are two points ahead of us which means that it is a must win for us. It also means that we must have to work hard in our attack.
“In terms of attacking we must be conscious of the Egyptians because they will be tight to penetrate.
“It was not a bad result. However, the three points would have been better if we had it. We find ourselves drawing the match one, one, there is still hope.
“We can still beat Egypt in their home front though it could be difficult, but nothing is impossible in the game of football,’’ the former Flying Eagles coach said.
He added that another challenge the Eagles had was the fact that most of the professionals had three days to train unlike their opponent.
“If you look at this match, the boys did well especially in the second half, but a moment loss of concentration cost us a great deal.
“We drew the match because of loss of concentration from the defence, but if we will work hard and remain focused, possibly, we will beat Egypt at home.
“But above all, I think the Egyptians were very much organised. They played a very technical game so to say.
“But if you look at our players, most of the professionals only had three to four days training of which if you look at the Egyptians they just had five professionals.
“The rest are home based which means their team is well blended.
“But for us we did not have much time to prepare very well for the match. I must say that there is still hope we can still beat Egypt at home but a lot of work needs to be done.
“Especially in terms of effort from defence because if you look at the first half we had more possession of the ball but the attack was not mobile.
“But I think in the second half they organised themselves very well especially when we score that goal.
“We relaxed a bit and that was when our opponent came back strong and the end result was 1-1,’’ Garba said.
NAN reports that the Pharaohs are currently leading Group G with seven points, followed by the Super Eagles with five points.
The winner of the group would qualify automatically for the Gabon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), while the runners-up would have to qualify through a play-off. (NAN)
