Jay-Jay Okocha believes the 2022 World Cup qualifying playoff games between Ghana and Nigeria in March will be tough because it’s about ‘pride and rivalry’..
The Super Eagles are considered favourites on paper because of their outstanding group stage display at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) while the Black Stars had their worst tournament ever in history, exiting at the group stage without winning a game.
For Okocha, who wants Nigeria to beat Ghana over the two games and qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, form doesn’t matter much.
Nigeria will travel to play the first leg at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium on March 24 before hosting the reverse fixture at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja three days after.
“Ghana versus Nigeria match is never an easy one. It is more about the rivalry, it is a pride match and a bragging right one,” Okocha was quoted on Thisdaylive website.
“For me, what is most important is to get the ticket. It doesn’t matter how, even if we don’t play beautiful football.
“What is important is getting the ticket to the World Cup in Qatar. It is the result that matters.”
Nigeria featured at the 2018 World Cup in Russia while Ghana missed out after three consecutive previous appearances.
Okocha has taken some positives from the Super Eagles’ shock 2021 Afcon round of 16 loss to Tunisia.
“Eagles raised our hopes in expectations of a good run in the tournament but unfortunately things didn’t go the way we expected,” he continued.
“However, I expect the team to learn from their outing in Cameroon and hopefully use the World Cup play-offs with Ghana to correct those mistakes.
“We have a very good team. We just don’t have to judge Super Eagles with the Tunisian match at the last Afcon in Cameroon.
“We have to review all the matches they played and take the positive and correct the negatives if there were any.
“The signs are there that we have the team to take us to where we want to be in global football.”