Tomorrow night’s showdown between the Super Eagles and Ghana at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi will pitch the lethal strike force of Nigeria against a physical and uncompromising defence of the Black Stars.
Eagles coach Augustine Eguavoen has prided himself for making his team play attacking football mainly using the wings, little wonder he is a big admirer of Pep Guardiola of Manchester City.
Eguavoen has promised to adopt “a positive” approach against home team Ghana.
For him, “it may be risky”, but it remains that the best form of defence is attack.
Ghana, on the other, have on their bench former Newcastle United and Brighton manager Chris Houghton, who has been known to lay extra emphasis on his defence in the relegation dog fights he has faced in the Premier League.
Napoli striker Victor Osimhen will carry the biggest threat to the Ghana defence.
He goes into this clash of scoring a brace in his last two Serie A matches and has already surpassed his tally of last season.
As widely feared, Osimhen was sorely missed at the AFCON in Cameroon for Moses Simon to catch the eye on the wings.
The Eagles now have more options on the flanks with the return of Watford star Emmanuel Dennis and fresh call-up for Ademola Lookman from Leicester City.
But in Alexander Djiku from French side Strasbourg, the Black Stars boast of a classy defender who is capable of holding his own against Napoli star.
He is very experienced having made as many as 182 appearances in Ligue 1 and solid as a rock.
Djiku along with Leicester City ace Daniel Amartey will make the Black Stars back four more solid with Arsenal star Thomas Partey and Idrisu Baaba the double screen for the defence in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
In comparison, the Nigerian defence is not as assured in the absence of Wilfred Ndidi in defensive midfield while William Ekong is no longer enjoying game time at Watford and Leon Balogun has been in and out of Scottish champions Rangers due to injury.
However, the Eagles will draw some comfort by the lack of goals by Ghana preferred striker Jordan Ayew.
Or will the Black Stars take a gamble and pick AS Roma youngster Afena Gyan to lead the attack instead?
In Joseph Painstill and Fatawu Issahaku, they have two very exciting wingers, who though could cause some bother to the Eagles fullbacks.
