Eagles can beat Blue Sharks without UK-based stars — Obafemi

Former Super Eagles defender, Abiodun Obafemi, has backed Gernot Rohr’s men to go for victory against Cape Verde in the absence of his UK-based players.

Nigeria play Cape Verde in the second game of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers at the Estadio Municipal Aderito Sena, Mindelo on Tuesday (today).

Despite the Nigeria Football Federation and Confederation of African Football’s appeal to the Premier League clubs to allow them have the players available for the game, the clubs refused to yield as Cape Verde is on the UK red-list for coronavirus safety regulations.

This means Rohr will be without Leicester City duo Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi, William Troost-Ekong, Oghenekaro Etebo, Ola Aina, Alex Iwobi, Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun.

But the Atlanta ’96 gold medallist believes without the absent players, the Eagles will soar high on today.

“I am optimistic that even without the UK-based players the Eagles will fly. I know that there is no how the absence of stars won’t be felt, but sincerely speaking I am 100 per cent sure that we will come out with a very positive result,” Obafemi told PUNCH Sports Extra.

“It is an opportunity for other players to show the stuff they are made of. Let them tell Rohr that they are good, if not better than the UK-based players.”

Also, Obafemi urged the three-time African champions to improve on their game after their 2-0 win over Liberia on Friday in Lagos.

He added, “I want Nigeria to dominate matches the way the Italians dominated Euro 2020, the same way Argentina dominated the Copa America. We need to start dominating our games and to do that we need the right players, especially in the midfield.

“Although the condition of the pitch played a role in the free-flowing of the game, I still want to see the synergy between the midfield and defence. That we did not see and at a time I was surprised the Liberians, who were mainly home-based players, were dictating the game and at a time the possession was 51 to 49 against us.

“I expect the attackers to do more than they did against Liberia. When we have our chances we must convert.”