Coach Augustine Eguavoen has said he will make some changes to his starting XI, which was unchanged for the first two Group D matches, for Wednesday’s final group game against Guinea Bissau.
Win or lose, the Eagles have already won the group ahead of Egypt and will as a result stay put in Garoua in the Round of 16 by the weekend.
“Everybody in this team has a chance to play in this tournament, so with qualification secured, we will be giving some players the opportunity to play in the next game,” Eguavoen hinted.
Goalkeeper Francis Uzoho and Alex Iwobi are the players in the strongest contention to get their first start on Wednesday.
Uzoho was No 1 goalkeeper at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but he has since lost that spot to Maduka Okoye, while Iwobi , a favourite of former coach Gernot Rohr, has been benched at this AFCON.
Eguavoen said because of the short time to prepare for this competition, he opted to line up players who have been playing together for some time.
“I didn’t want to take the risk, which was why I retained the same starting lineup (vs Sudan),” the coach said.
“Coaching of this team started in January 6 and it was difficult to take the risk because it was better to play with a team that has been together for some time.
“We banked on players who know themselves.”
