Home-based Eagles to Open CHAN Camp on Monday

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Nigeria’s preparations to make positive impact at the 8th African Nations Championship scheduled to be jointly hosted by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda from February 1 to 28 will kickoff on Monday.

Nigeria Football Federation officials have confirmed to SCORENigeria.com.ng thatthe squad under the watch of Daniel Ogunmodede will return to camp to be properly focused for the tournament after the NPFL went on break until January 25.

The Super Eagles B Team eliminated arch-rivals Ghana 3-1 on aggregate to qualify for the tournament proper to be held in East Africa.

Nigeria will be returning to the competition after a six-year absence.

Incidentally, it was the same Ghanaians that caused Eagles to miss those editions.

Ghana stopped Nigeria from reaching the 2009 and 2023 finals, in Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria respectively, and also defeated Nigeria after a penalty shootout when a semi-final clash at the 3rd African Nations Championship in South Africa in 2014 ended scoreless.

Apart from exiting Nigeria from CHAN, Ghana’s Black Stars similarly barred the Super Eagles from reaching the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar despite a scoreless finish in the first leg in Kumasi. 

In the return leg fixture in Abuja, Thomas Partey scored before a William Ekong penalty evened the scoreline, but the result was enough to spring the Stars to the final tournament in Qatar at the expense of the Eagles based on the away goal rule.

The delayed 2024 CHAN will kick off on February 1 with the final game expected to be played on the last day of February.