Nigeria’s stand-in-captain Ahmed Musa is banking on his personal unbeaten streak on South African soil to guide the Super Eagles to another win over Bafana Bafana when they clash at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg this afternoon (Saturday) in a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
Musa has played seven games on South African soil but is yet to lose a game. Six games at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournament which the Super Eagles won and an international friendly match against South Africa which ended 1-1- a game invwhich Musa was on target for Nigeria.
The 26-year-old Al Nassr forward, however is under no illusion of the difficulty his teammates will face against the Bafana Bafana given how their previous meeting in Uyo last year ended in defeat
The South African side led by Stuart Baxter defeated Nigeria 2-0 at the Akwa Ibom International Stadium 17 months ago.
“I’ve never lost in South Africa and, by the grace of God, I will never lose,” Musa told Kick-off.
“South Africa is a very good team, they always play very well when they play against Nigeria, so it’s not an easy game for us.”
“Them too, they know that it’s not an easy game for them, but we’ll have to wait after 95 minutes [to see how it pans out].”
The Super Eagles stalwart, who has racked up close to 80 senior national team caps also refused to talk up their ‘favourites’ tag in as far as qualification from Group E is concerned, despite their sitting atop the standings.
“I don’t think so. We still have a lot of work to do. First of all, we have to qualify [for Cameroon 2019] first before thinking about the favourite team,” he said.
“As you can see, we have one of the youngest teams in Africa for now – I think 27 is the highest age in the team, and most of them are between 19 and 22. So, we have a lot of work to do.”