Eagles Coach Dreads Ghana

Amusa Adisa, Super Eagles goalkeepers' coach, has told news men that the Black Stars of Ghana would be the toughest opponent the Eagles would contend with in Group D of their 2006 Nations Cup in Egypt.

CAF on Thursday at its Nations Cup draws in Giza, Egypt, grouped Ghana, Senegal and Zimbabwe with the Eagles in Group D of the competition.

Now Adisa feels the Ghanaians would be more of a threat than any other team in the group.

“The Ghanaians are just re-assembling themselves again and trying to be strong on the continent again.

“They have qualified for the World Cup and to me I think they would be the strongest team we would be playing against in our Nations Cup group.

“The Senegalese we've played against a couple of times, and we know them a bit but the Ghanaians have a new and very strong team and it's quite a while we've played them, so they would be tough.

“To me Ghana is the team to dread in our group,” Adisa said.

The Eagles beat the Warriors of Zimbabwe 8-1 on aggregate when both sides met in their World/Nations Cup qualifying matches, and Adisa buries any thought of the Zimbabweans avenging their loses against Nigeria when both sides meet next year in their Nations Cup group match.

“We beat them (Zimbabwe) in the qualifiers when we had little time to assemble our team. At the Nations Cup it would be a different ball game.

“We would hopefully have had time to assemble our team and put them in a competitive frame of mind, which would only make it difficult for the Zimbabweans to beat us.

“I don't see the Zimbabweans avenging any loss. Like I said earlier, our biggest worry in the group would be the Ghanaian team,” Adisa told reporters from Ilorin.

The Super Eagles play their opening game of the 2006 Nations Cup in Egypt against the Black Stars of Ghana on January 23.