I will remind them — Eguavoen confident he knows how to motivate Super Eagles players

Super Eagles interim boss Austin Eguavoen has explained how he plans to motivate his boys ahead of the upcoming AFCON qualifier fixtures against Benin Republic and Rwanda. 

The Super Eagles' form plummeted after the AFCON earlier in the year. In the four games since the tournament, the Nigerian men's national team have only managed to win once: an international friendly against Ghana. 

They have gone on to lose twice and draw one. It is their last two results, however, a loss and a draw that raised an alarm, as the two matches were World Cup qualifiers. 

The disappointing results have put Nigeria on the back foot in their bid to qualify for the USA/Mexico/Canada 2026 and have dissipated confidence in the team ahead of the AFCON qualifiers. However, Eguaveon believes he can motivate the team to succeed. 

The 59-year-old, who has the job on an interim basis, expressed his confidence in the team. He told reporters that the team still strikes fear in opponents and that they only have to be reminded of their quality, as they came close to AFCON glory only months ago. 

“Nigeria is a nation that a lot of countries respect and there is no difference in this one,” Eguavoen said. I am very confident that we will scale through these two games and beyond. We have the materials; we have the players; we have the personnel and the support.

“The only thing we have to remind these players about is that they were almost African champions months ago. It is not even a year yet. So what went wrong? So it is still them. We will do everything we have to do as the technical crew, and of course, the Federation and Nigerians will rally around them. They are the ones to turn the table around.”

Eguavoen was offered the Super Eagles job after the NFF's negotiations with Bruno Labbadia fell through. The former defender will be in the dugout for the qualifiers against Benin Republic and Rwanda on September 7th and 10th, respectively.