“Lightning never strikes the same place twice” is a common proverb in Nigeria. That is exactly what Super Eagles coach Austin Eguavoen will be hoping for when he leads his side out against Ghana in the first leg final play-off for a spot at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
The Eagles will battle their archrivals at the dreaded Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, in Ghana’s northern region, an arena Eguavoen is quite familiar with, on March 25 before ther reverse fixture in Abuja four days later.
Ghana initially picked the Cape Coast stadium as venue of the game, but CAF rejected the stadium after independence celebration at the stadium left it in a bad state.
On Wednesday, CAF approved the 40,528-capacity Baba Yara Stadium for the venue, with .
Nigeria Football Federation boss Amaju Pinnick, in an interview with Nigerian News Paprwer The PUNCH on Wednesday, after the venue shift, insisting that with a good team, the Eagles will beat Ghana anywhere.
However, Eguavoen still have memories of his first experience at the stadium, where he ended up on the losing side in 2011, courtesy of the away goals rule.
It was the qualifiers for that year’s African Games and Eguavoen was coach of the U-23 side that battled Ghana in the final qualifier for a spot in the football event of the continent’s showpiece sports fiesta.
The first leg in Benin City ended 3-1 in favour of Nigeria.
With high hopes heading into the reverse fixture, Eguavoen and his players travelled to Kumasi for the crucial game at the Baba Yara Stadium.
He had some of the country’s brightest talents: Ekigho Ehiosun, Kingsley Udoh, Obiorah Nwankwo, Terna Suswam, Edet Ibok, Ahmed Musa, Harmony Ikande, Yusuf Olaitan in his squad.
In Ghana, the reception was hostile; the Nigerians were pelted with water bottles during training at the Baba Yara Stadium by the unfriendly hosts. Ghanaian fans taunted the young Nigerian players, and swarmed their bus like bees, in a bid to intimidate them.
Ghana had earlier stopped the national women’s team, Super Falcons, from the race to the football event of the Africa Games.
They yelled and told the visitors they will suffer same fate as their female counterparts.
This was truly a titanic battle in the making, for a place at the African Games.
Then Nigeria High Commissioner to Ghana, Musiliu Obanikoro, assured the team of the country’s support and gave them the needed encouragement ahead of the clash.
On match day proper, the Black Meteors, as Ghana’s U-23 side are known, turned Eguavoen’s Dream Team to mere dreamers, winning the tie 2-0, courtesy of goals from Emmanuel Agyeman-Badu in the 11th minute and Richard Mpong in the 70th minute to qualify on the away-goal rule.
There was no doubt that the Nigerian team paid the price for a defence that looked too slow and out of sorts from the early minutes of play.
Misery wasn’t over yet for the coach.
The night after the defeat, Eguavoen was subjected to verbal abuse by some Nigerian fans seething with rage over the team’s defeat at the Sports Hotel, Kumasi.
Some of the aggrieved fans confronted Eguavoen and almost went physical but for the intervention of security operatives who were around the scene.
The furious fans said it was Eguavoen’s defensive formation that caused Nigeria’s loss.
Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi is the Black Stars fortress, where the goals rain down on opponents in torrents.
In October 2013 the Black Stars defeated mighty Egypt 6-1 on their way to qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The result was Ghana’s highest win against Egypt and their second highest in the World Cup qualifying campaign after defeating Lesotho 7-0 in June 2012 in Kumasi.
It was at the same ground, that local giants Asante Kotoko mauled Egyptian club Zamalek 5-1 in a continental club match.
Eleven years after, Eguavoen returns to the same venue with memories he would rather have banished still fresh in his mind.
Will he avenge the defeat or the Ghanaians will be second time lucky?
Source: The Punch
