Veteran coach Paul Hamil ton has played down on the relevance of the London friendly match between the Super Eagles and Ghana’s Black Stars next month.

According to him, the Ghana match is not as important as the crucial Nations Cup qualifier against Madagascar in Maputo in September, adding that the friendly should not be seen as a must win for the team who will want to think of revenging their defeat in the hands of the Black Stars.

“If we must qualify for the Nation’s Cup, we should endeavour not to take the Ghana match serious,” he began.

“Playing against Ghana is not a do-or—die affair but a kind of motivation. The question Nigerians should ask is whether the Ghana match is more important than the Madagascar and Guinea matches,” he said, adding “The London friendly is not relevant but should be used as a motivation for the team ahead of the Nations Cup qualifiers.”

“Why the revenge over Ghana when it is a friendly match? It would have been better if we are contending with Ghana in a competitive game. However, everybody is aware that the team is passing through a rebuilding process, therefore,we should be more concerned on the major matches rather than the friendly match. Ghana’s dominance over us did not start today. Ghana has been our rival right from time.

The thing is either they beat us or we beat them. But I would prefer we lose in London than losing against Madagascar. Siasia is in charge of the team and he should know the best Arsenal for the match,” he said.

Bosso advises Obuh on World Cup

Ex-Flying Eagles coach Ladan Bosso has advised coach John Obuh to ensure he blocks the loopholes in the team and try to psych the players as the team begins their World Cup campaign tomorrow in Colombia.

Bosso said that the “duty of the coach is to identify players problems and see how to correct it before the main event on Tomorrow.”

“As far as I am concerned, the NFF has done its best to ensure the Flying Eagles do well at the World Cup. Like I have always said, no coach can boast that he has a complete team until after two or three matches. During my days as the team’s coach, it was not as smooth as it is today with different programmes set before the main competition. There was no training tour, not even an international match or matches but this time around the NFF and the technical committee are doing their best to ensure that the team do well at the end.”

Continuing he said, “ With the preparation given so far, I think the coach needs to do his best to ensure that they come out best at the World Cup. With prayers and support from Nigerians, the team will go places.

“There is no problem losing to Portugal at the pre-World Cup tournament As a coach, when you lose, you ask yourself what went wrong? That is what the coach should do and try to correct the lapses. Losing to Portugal does not mean they are not good. On our part, we will assist by sending good will messages to the coach and pointing out the team’s mistakes to him.”