Lagos – An Atlanta 1996 Olympics gold medalist, Emmanuel Babayaro, on Thursday said the Super Eagles in spite of the outcome of their friendly matches would progress beyond the World Cup group stage.

Eagles have drawn their last three World Cup warm-up matches.
The team played 0-0 against Mexico, 2-2 against Scotland and 0-0 with Greece.

Babayaro, while speaking  in Lagos, implored Nigerians to be unruffled by the results, saying that warm-up matches were for coaches to assess their tactics and identify areas needing improvement.

He said that regardless of the impressive run of the Eagles’ group opponent, Bosnia-Herzegovina in its friendly matches, Nigerians should remain confident the Eagles would soar.

“So far, we’ve been relatively successful in our build up to the World Cup and I’m optimistic that the Eagles will advance beyond the group stage.
“Frankly speaking, we should be less worried about results of friendly matches because it isn’t a yardstick to measure how well a team will perform in the tournament.

“I could recall we got very poor results when we were preparing for the Atlanta 1996 Olympics but we went there and won the gold in football.
“And again, a lot of players want to avoid sustaining injuries and want to play safe in a friendly match,” Babayaro said.

The former goalkeeper, while assessing the team, said he was convinced Eagles’ first choice goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, had the urge to perform remarkably in Brazil.

He added that he was satisfied with the team’s attacking ability in creating chances but pointed out the need for converting the chances into goals.

“Enyeama is the brightest hope I have in the team. He has the capacity to perform at the highest level and I’m certain he’ll be crucial to the team.
“The attack is also good but they must improve on executing the chances they create. The midfield I think is okay,” he said.

According to Babayaro, the defence really needs to be improved on because it appears to be porous at the moment.

NAN reports that the Eagles will kick-off their World Cup campaign against Iran on June 16, at the Arena da Baixada, Curitiba, Brazil. (NAN)