We expect tougher challenge from Mali, says Finidi George

Super Eagles celebrating their opening goal against Ghana in Morocco…on Friday.

Super Eagles Coach, Finidi George, is expecting Mali to give his team a tougher fight than the Blacks Stars of Ghana did in their last friendly game in Morocco.

Nigeria will, today, meet Mali in their second match of the FIFA window after beating Ghana 2-1 on Friday in Marrakech, Morocco.

The Super Eagles interim coach used some new players in the game against the Black Stars because he didn’t want to overload the players, especially those who featured prominently at the last Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.

He said he would continue on that line, with those who didn’t get much game time against Ghana offered the opportunity to earna permanent position in the squad.

Defender Kenneth Omeruo, who missed the Ghana match due to injury, is uncertain for the today’s game, and Finidi said yesterday that the doctors would examine the former Chelsea star to ascertain his level of fitness just before kickoff today.

Apart from Omeruo, Calvin Bassey, who also missed the game against Ghana through injury, has left the Eagles’ camp for his club, Fulham, for urgent analysis by the club’s medical team.
Those absences notwithstanding, there is a new buzz in the team with some players confessing that they feel relieved that they have been given opportunity to show exactly what they can do as opposed to the straitjacket pattern the team adopted during the AFCON, which, they said, limited some of the players.

In the game against Ghana, the Super Eagles adopted a 3-5-2 formation instead of the 3-4-3 that Jose Peseiro used at the AFCON. The coach welcomed back Wilfred Ndidi, Cyriel Dessers, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Bright Osayi-Samuel to the starting line up with a