The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has moved forward the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match between Nigeria and Egypt by an hour.
The match earlier billed to kick-off at 4pm on Friday will now start by 5pm.
The shifting, according to NFF was on account of the weather.
The NFF believes that the 5pm time would be temperate enough and not affect Super Eagles foreign-based players adversely.
However, Mikel Obi says the priority for the Super Eagles is to beat Egypt on Friday so as to improve the team’s chances of qualifying for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, after failing to qualify for last year’s tournament in Equatorial Guinea.
Super Eagles with four points, trails group leaders, Egypt with two points in the qualifying group. A win in Kaduna will see the Nigeria leapfrog Egypt with a point before a reverse fixture in Alexandria four days later.
“Egypt is ahead of us in the qualifiers, we therefore have to win on Friday so as to go above them on the table,” said Mikel.
“So, Friday’s match is really the big one and we are playing at home. We are ready. We must beat Egypt and go on to qualify for the Nations Cup,” added defender Chibuzor Okonkwo, who has staged a comeback to the team on the return of Coach Samson Siasia at the helm.