Friday Ekpo tips home-based players to shine
Ex-international,
Friday Ekpo, has said the players invited from the Nigeria Professional
Football League would likely do better than their overseas-based
counterparts when the Super Eagles face the Taifa Stars in their 2017
Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match on September 5 in Dar es Salam.
The 23 home-based players, who were
invited by the Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, reported to camp on Monday.
Five of them would be chosen to complement the 18 overseas-based players
who have also been invited.
Ekpo told our correspondent that the
home-based players would be more match-fit than their counterparts, who
would be flying in from Europe, considering that the European leagues
resumed barely two weeks ago.
The former Nigeria midfielder added that
the players invited from the NPFL have the quality to compete
favourably with their overseas-based counterparts.
He said, “The leagues have just started
in Europe but the home-based players have been playing every weekend in
the NPFL. The European leagues are just about two weeks old and not many
of our players have featured for their European clubs.
“Therefore,
the home-based players have an advantage over the Europe-based players
in terms of physical fitness. However, it all depends on who the
technical crew wants and what the game plan is. I have the confidence
that the home-based players have the quality to give Oliseh what he
wants against Tanzania.”
Ekpo added that he believes Oliseh will
choose the best players, irrespective of whether they play for clubs in
Nigeria or abroad.
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