By Albert Akota
The Chief Coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi, has thrown down the gauntlet to his stars that they must defeat former world champions, France today.
Both teams clash in the round of 16 at the 2014 Fifa World Cup inside the Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha in Brasilia with the French regarded as favourites to progress.
But Keshi wants his men to exhibit a strong “mentality” when they go head-to-head with France’s Les Bleus in the knockout stage of the tournament.
The former Mali and Togo coach has also refused to pre-occupy his thoughts with their likely opponents in the quarterfinals should the Super Eagles defeat France on Monday.
Keshi and his troops are only focused on winning the clash with the French.
“I said before the tournament that our mentality must be strong. Our approach to every match has always been the same: to win. Whether we are playing against Spain at the Fifa Confederations Cup or playing against Liberia in a friendly match, I always tell the boys that victory is non negotiable.
“For us, we will go into Monday’s match aiming to win. But as I also said before the competition, we take it one match at a time. We don’t even want to think of who might be lurking in the quarterfinals if we win; we are not bothered. All we know is that we must win on Monday,” Keshi said.
The winners between France and Nigeria will face either Germany or Algeria in the quarterfinals at the Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro on July 4.
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