Former Super Eagles midfielder Garba Lawal sees a tough qualifying campaign for Nigeria after the former African champions were grouped with, seven-time champions, Egypt as well as Tanzania and Chad in qualifying group G.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the last edition in Equatorial Guinea, making it the second failure in three attempts, and Lawal, who represented Nigeria at several Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, says it will be another tough task.
“We have a tough group,” he said. “It will be tough because we have Egypt in there and we cannot underestimate Chad and Tanzania. As we have seen in the last three qualifiers where we had supposedly weak opponents, we still failed to qualify on two of those occasions.
“Egypt obviously will be the toughest opponents and having failed to qualify for recent editions, they will be hoping to return to the competition. And of course we cannot write off Tanzania and Chad. They may not be the biggest forces, but we have to respect them.”
The former Roda, of Holland, midfielder also adds that Nigeria can qualify, but says a coach must be appointed now.
“Yes we can qualify. But we need to get a coach now. No more time wasting, we need a coach now. But I believe we can qualify.”