The Super Eagles of Nigeria had their first training session yesterday ahead of their upcoming 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers games against Benin Republic and Lesotho respectively, Owngoalnigeria.com reports.
As usual our correspondent was at the session which lasted a little over an hour and was more on helping the players recover from the journey of travelling down for the game than on tactics for tomorrow’s game.
The outfield players including Daniel Akpeyi were involved in ball works but two of the goalkeepers in Maduka Okoye and Ikechukwu Ezenwa were drilled by goalkeeper coach of the team Alloy Agu. No reason was given as to why Akpeyi was excluded.
Okoye made three save termed as risky by Agu but the coach later praised him for being brave in making the saves. Agu was very impressed with the handling of Okoye and also his reaction after a save. His reflex was also a lot better than that of Ezenwa.
Ezenwa looked way fitter than he was in training before the last friendly game against Brazil and his reflex was a lot better. He however didn’t impress as much as Okoye did with his ball handling and reaction after a save.
It appears like the duo are in a straight battle for who will deputise as second choice to Akpeyi who is likely to start owing to his fine performances for Kaizer Chiefs where he has won two man of the match award for the runaway league leaders.
