Stephen Keshi: We are in Namibia to win...

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has said that his team will confront Namibia in Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier with the aim of winning their second consecutive game on the road. The Nigerian trainer said he was impressed with the Namibian team after their first round World Cup qualifier in Calabar last year. The Brave Warriors managed to keep the Super Eagles at bay for most of the match, before Ikechukwu Uche scored the lone goal 10 minutes from time.

“Namibia has some very good players, and it is a good team,” Keshi said.

Regarding the sudden resignation of Namibian coach Roger Palmgren, Keshi said it should not have a big influence on the game.

“I’m not in a position to know how it will affect the Namibian players, but I want to imagine if my coach leaves before a crucial game, the morale of the team might be down a bit. But the good thing is that he hasn’t been long with the players I think it was about a month or so and it’s not as if he has been around for six months or a year - so that might not be too heavy for the players,” he said.

Keshi said their preparations were on track although he was not impressed with the cold conditions.

“We tried to prepare ourselves but the weather is very cold. I would think this is winter time in Namibia, but we’ll get used to it when the game comes on Wednesday. Most of the boys are used to it so it’s not a big thing,” he said.

In the day's other game, Malawi host Kenya in Blantyre as they seek to better their fortunes after drawing against Namibia last week. Malawi are second on the table with six points while bottom-placed Kenya have two points.