Amuneke: It's Still Unfortunate Nigeria Missed Out Of Qatar 2022 World Cup

Amuneke: It's Still Unfortunate Nigeria Missed Out Of Qatar 2022 World Cup

Ibraheem Lateef Ayodele

Super Eagles legend Emmanuel Amuneke says it was rather unfortunate that Nigeria missed out at next month's 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but believes the five African flagbearers will have their work cut out for them in the Mundial, reports BSNSports.com.ng.

Amuneke who scored twice for the Super Eagles against Bulgaria and Italy at USA’94 was quoted on GhanaSoccernet and Ghana Football.

“It is unfortunate that Nigeria will not be at the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup,”

“But the five countries representing Africa at Qatar 2022 must, first of all, learn from the previous World Cups, especially at the last Russia 2018 where no team from the continent reached the second round stage.

“I think this is very, very important because we have great players playing in various leagues in Europe and we can far-between have great players all over the place, especially with Senegal’s Sadio Mane coming second behind Karim Benzema this year’s Ballon d'Or

“ So it’s not a question of whether we (Africa) have the players but how do we manage the players to achieve the desired results.

“ Of course, success at the World Cup level is not only about the quality of players, it’s about the collective team’s efforts as such, I would want to see our flagbearers from the continent play a brand of football that is result oriented and not about individuality,”

“Over time the problem with most African teams is tactical and most often than not, we find it difficult to maintain that balance, consistency which had cost us dear at the global level,” he ended.

Africa will be represented by Morocco, Cameroon, Tunisia, Senegal and Ghana, who beat Nigeria in the final qualifying round, denying the Super Eagles a fifth successive appearance.

The Super Eagles' outstanding performance at USA'94 and Algeria's inspired performance at the 1982 finals in Spain stand out among the few and far-between African football miracles at the World Cup.

The only African teams to have advanced to the quarterfinals are the trio of Cameroon (Italia 1990), Senegal (Korea/Japan 2002), and Ghana (South Africa 2010).