Assistant coach of Egypt’s national team, Osama Nabih, has identified three factors that could derail his side’s chances of posting creditable results against Nigeria in this month’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying matches.
Three-time champions, Nigeria,will face Egypt in the first of two 2017 Afcon qualifiers at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna on March 25 with the return fixture coming up four days later at the Borg El-Arab Stadium in Alexandria.
Nabih says Nigeria are favourites for three reasons.
“The first difficulty is Nigeria is a big name on the African continent, despite failing to reach the last edition of the Africa Cup.
“Nigeria is coached by Samson Siasia who reached the Olympic Games by (winning a silver medal) first with the Under-23 team.
“Moreover, Nigeria have 22 foreign-based players alongside well-prepared ones in the domestic Nigerian league. So Siasia possesses all the tools that lead to success.
“Despite the difficulty of the Nigeria game, we are working to improve our chance of qualifying for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals in the coming Nigeria game,” Nabih told Egyptian media outfit, www.nilesports.com.
Egypt lead Group G with six points, two ahead of second-placed Nigeria.
Only the group winners are guaranteed automatic qualification for the 2017 Afcon.