SUPER Eagles most in-form player, Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi and Maduka Okoye will this morning arrive in Uyo where the three-time African champions are camping for the crunch World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin Republic.
This newspaper gathered from a top official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that the three players were to arrive yesternight and fly into Uyo this morning to join the rest of the squad.
“They will arrive tonight (yesterday night) and will fly into Uyo tomorrow (today),” said the official.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere around the camp of the Super Eagles was described by the NFF as lively as five players who were initially stranded in two different parts of the country as a result of the nationwide strike were ferried into Uyo yesterday morning.
Defenders Semi Ajayi, Bright Osayi-Samuel and Calvin Bassey, alongside midfielder Frank Onyeka and forward Paul Onuachu landed at the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo just after noon aboard a private jet arranged by the NFF, and were driven to the team’s Ibom Hotel and Resorts to meet up with team mates in time for lunch.
The arrival of the quintet brought the tally of players in camp to 20, three days to the Day 3 qualifying battle with the Bafana Bafana at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in the Akwa Ibom capital.
Nigeria and South Africa go toe-to-toe in a rematch of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations first semi-final, which the Super Eagles trumped 4-2 after penalty shootout at the Stade de la Paix in Bouake.
Three-time African champions Nigeria, who have reached the Round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup on three occasions, missed out on the last houseparty in Qatar, and after a sluggish start to the qualifiers, need all three points on offer to be in strong contention for the only ticket from Group C as the campaign drags on.
