Echiejile diffuses Afcon panic talks

Nigeria defender, Elderson Echiejile, has played down talks that the country's men national team could miss out of the 2017 Afcon after failing to take maximum points from their first two games.

The AS Monaco man explained that it is too soon to begin pressing the panic button after just two matches into the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.



The Nigerians have won one against Chad and drew in Tanzania while the Pharaohs of Egypt have taken the full points against Tanzania and Chad scoring eight goals in their two matches.

The 27-year-old is of the view that despite trailing the Egyptians by two points in Group G of the Afcon qualification, the Super Eagles still do have their destiny in their hands since there four rounds of matches to play as well as the fact that they are yet to play against the North Africans.

"For me as a player I always believe in the team, the Super Eagles. I think it is just two games (played so far in the Afcon qualification), and we still have more games to play. We have not played Egypt yet, so the door is still wide open and it is just for us to work really, really hard and try to get wins in important games and get back in a better position in the group," he said.

The ex-Bendel Insurance man, who made his debut in 2009, has seen at least three coaches in charge of the Nigerian team before the recent appointment of Sunday Oliseh by his country's football federation.

Echiejile has worked with Lars Lagerback, Samson Siasia and more recently Stephen Keshi. Now he is in line to make his bow under Oliseh having been called up for the internationals against DR Congo and Cameroon in October.

The left-back has now called on his country's FA to put in place a long-term plan for the Super Eagles.

"I think it (the Super Eagles) should be an issue of long-term planning. It is a national team and not a clubside, because people come in and go out with their own ideas. There is always going to be this change. At the end, I think there should always be a long-term plan that whoever comes in should be able to work with, so that we can actually achieve good results in the national team," said the defender.

Echiejile has made more than 40 international appearances for Nigeria and was a key member in the country's squad that won the 2013 Afcon in South Africa.