Super Eagles and Brentford midfielder, Frank Ogochukwu Onyeka, has revealed that the Nigerian national team will give their all in their upcoming World Cup qualifying games, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 26-year-old defensive midfielder put in a great shift at the AFCON 2023 tournament in Wilfred Ndidi’s absence, playing all seven games for Jose Peseiro’s team, and helping them to a second-place finish.
Onyeka, speaking at the GTech Community Stadium, revealed how much of an influence Finidi George was at the AFCON tournament, highlighting his appointment as a boost to the Super Eagles.
“He’s a good coach, good guy, he helped the players during the AFCON and now he’s been appointed as the coach, so I guess everyone is happy,” the Brentford man told Tobi Adepoju in an interview.
🎙️Chat with Super Eagles and Brentford midfielder, @_FrankOnyeka in London🎙️
* What he said about Finidi George’s appointment as the Super Eagles coach.
* The 2026 World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin Republic next month. The poor start to the qualifiers.
* His… pic.twitter.com/UJ15WyL1bJ
— Adepoju Tobi Samuel 🇳🇬 (@OgaNlaMedia) May 20, 2024
Nigeria will play against South Africa in June in a bid to recover lost grounds after drawing against Rwanda and Lesotho in their first two World Cup qualifying games. Onyeka revealed the Super Eagles are desperate to turn the tides in their favour.
“In all seriousness, we have to go to that game with everything because of what it means to us and to the country. Two points from two games is not good, so we need to win our next two games. We’ll give everything and be ready for it,” the former FC Midtjylland man added.
Nigeria will play against Benin Republic at The Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Ivory Coast, three games after the South Africa game, and Onyeka, who got his Super Eagles debut with Gernot Rohr as Nigeria’s coach in 2020, reiterated it won’t be an easy task to take three points off Nigeria’s neighbours.
“We know Gernot Rohr and it’s not going to be easy. The teams in Africa are not easy to play against, so we’ll go with all seriousness in the hopes that we get the win,” Onyeka concluded.
It is yet to be confirmed if Frank Onyeka will be in the Super Eagles squad for their World Cup qualifiers as he’s battling with a knock.