TheCable

Super Eagles defender, Azubuike Egwuekwe, is looking to avoid the mistake of the last Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) campaign when the team face Chad on June 13.

Nigeria lost 3-2 to Congo in the 2015 AFCON first qualifying match in Calabar. The team never recovered from that setback as they failed to book a ticket to the championship hosted by Equatorial Guinea.

Now it is a case of once bitten twice shy for the Warri Wolves defender as the 2017 campaign begins with a game against Chad in Kaduna.

“One thing that I know for sure is that we will not take them for granted,” he told sl10.ng.

“Whether they are good or not, to us we will take it very seriously because we have to win. We want to start the qualifiers on a good note and avoid what happened the last time.

“We lost our first game at home and that really affected us and we don’t want that to happen again. This time, every game we play in the qualifiers will be like a cup final for us and we will put everything in it to ensure we qualify for the next Africa Cup of Nations,” he said.

The player, though, admitted not knowing the strengths and weaknesses of their opponent.

“Well I can’t really say because I haven’t seen them play before so I don’t know how good they are,” he said.

Egypt and Tanzania complete the countries in Group G.