Will Ethiopia Make History In Calabar?

By Azeez Said

The Super Eagles of Nigeria will lock horns with the Walias of Ethiopia this weekend, both fighting to be in Brazil for the World cup next year. The Keshi led side would hope to finish the work they already started at Addis Ababa when they had to come from a goal down to win the match 2-1, both strikes coming from influential striker, Emmanuel Emenike. 

The home fans will intimidate the visitors with their deafening cheer after seeing their team been treated the same way in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia have to be wary of the West African side who have a near perfect record on home soil. 

Ethiopia are not also to be written off and they find themselves in this position after topping Group A of the World cup qualification that also consisted of South Africa. Though they don't have world stars like those the Nigerian team boast of, but team spirit keeps them going and the Super Eagles have to take note of players like Saladin Said and Adane Girma. Putting in mind that they have never been at the World cup, they will fight hard to make history in Nigeria and qualify for the FIFA World cup for the first time.

On paper, you would expect this to be an easy ride for the Super Eagles with the kind of stars they have at their disposal. The likes of Mikel, Victor Moses (both just nominated for the BBC African footballer of the year award) and Emmanuel Emenike will easily get a starting shirt in the Ethiopian national team. Nigeria would hope to make it two consecutive World cup appearances after qualifying for the previous one in South Africa. The last time they failed to make it to the World cup was in Germany when they lost to Angola in the qualifiers but this Ethiopian side don't possess enough threat to make that happen again. 

Both set of fans would be praying to see their team win and join up with the rest of the qualified teams in Brazil for the World cup next summer.