By Ime Bassey
China ’85 Golden Eaglets winning coach, Sebastian Broderick has stated that Nigeria will qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon/ Equatorial Guinea next year.

Speaking from his base in Benin City, the ex-Red Devils (as the senior national team was known in the 60s) player said that no matter what happened, if at the end of the qualifiers the Eagles have same points with the Syli National, the Eagles will qualify as best loser.

The former Bendel Insurance coach said the Eagles will beat the Guineans in Nigeria after picking the desired three points from Antananarivo against Madagascar.

“I believe we have a very strong chance of qualifying for the African showpiece. There will be two best losers that will qualify for the tournament. I believe we will beat Guinea here in Nigerian and even if we end up sharing same points with them, we qualify as best losers. This I know and I am sure of,” Broderick said.

The Golden Eaglets coach to Scotland ’89 excused the Super Eagles for losing to Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, stressing that the weather is very difficult to over come.

“As a player, I have been to Ethiopian twice. I know it is not very easy to win  there, I want to be honest with you. I played for Nigeria in the sixties. I must confess to you that they did not play well in Ethiopia, not because of anything but just the weather. Their next two games will not be in that kind of weather,” he stressed.

The 1968 Olympian advised the NFF and Nigerians at large to look beyond the defeat and strategise for posterity sake, pleading with Nigerians to learn how to accept defeat.

“We cannot win every match we play, all we have to do is to be focussed. We should not lose grip about these things, the important thing is for us to work hard,” he added.