Nigeria Super Eagles were drawn in Group A with the hosts, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau at the AFCON draw ceremony in Abidjan on Thursday night.
Reacting to the draw, former Super Eagles midfielder, Sunday Mba tipped the team to qualify from their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations group along with Cote d’Ivoire in a session with Brila FM.
Mba scored the decisive solo goal that earned the Super Eagles a third AFCON title against Burkina Faso in the final of 2013 edition of the competition, and has backed the team to qualify from the group.
The past Enugu Rangers star, Mba, is confident of the Eagles' qualification chances, nonetheless, he reiterated against complacency which can be an actual problem while facing other teams in the group.
“Nigeria will qualify from their group, but we cannot underrate any of our opponents because all of them are a lot more prepared now”.
“In fact, Nigeria are the team to beat at the 2023 AFCON, not just about qualifying from Group A”, He added.
Why Mba said Super Eagles are the team to beat
The 2013 AFCON winner assessed the Eagles' set up and the array of stars available for Nigeria at the moment. He said:
“We have the best strikers around and with a balanced team, we have no team to fear.”
The last time the Eagles faced Côte d’Ivoire at the AFCON was the 2013 edition which the former won 2-1.
While the Eagles defeated Guinea-Bissau 2-0 at the 2021 tournament in Cameroon, they will clash with Equatorial Guinea for the first time in the history of the competition.
Nigeria drew Saudi Arabia 2-2 on Friday evening as the team continued preparations ahead of January's AFCON competition.
They will next play Mozambique on 16 October to conclude their double friendly games for this month's international window.
Jose Peseiro's team will then conclude this year's involvements with World Cup qualies against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in November.
This article was most recently revised and updated 2 weeks ago
