"Siasia is afraid of us -Egypt Coach said

THE 2017 AFCON qualifier between Nigeria and Egypt is still two weeks away but the mind game and war of words
between the two camps have been intensified as the battle draws near.

*Siasia afraid of us —Egypt
*Egypt should be afraid of us —Siasia

Egypt goalkeeping coach Ahmed Nagi believes that Nigeria boss Samson Siasia is using bully-boy tactics to hide his
fear ahead of their double header in Group G of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

“We can recreate October 1977; why not? The home- boys have come in and full
training has commenced. Everyone is rearing to go. By the time the foreign based players arrive, the competition will be what we want,” the Super Eagles
caretaker coach had claimed, recalling Nigeria’s 4-0 thrashing of the Pharaohs in Lagos in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in
October 1977.

“Siasia’s statements won’t affect Egypt players, or the coaching staff,” Nagi said
on television on Wednesday.

“We’re used to hearing these kinds of comments from African coaches. The statements indicate he is worried
about the Egypt clash. “Siasia respects the Egypt team. He knows our abilities. And we also respect the Nigeria team,
as they are strong opponents, so I hope to achieve a positive result.”

Lying top of the group on six points, following back-to-back wins over Tanzania and Chad, the Pharaohs will face
Nigeria in Kaduna on 25 March before hosting the Super Eagles in Alexandria four days later.

“The final squad will be announced after the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup games. Then we
will fly to Nigeria on 23 March in a private jet to Kaduna,” the goalkeeping coach added.

Meanwhile Super Eagles caretaker manager Samson Siasia has fired back at the Egyptian coach who said that he was
afraid of the Pharaohs. Instead, Siasia has stressed that the Egyptian team should be afraid of the Eagles.

Siasia had previously said that he aims to get all the six points from Egypt in their two-legged clash in the qualifiers,
and now warns his players that they cannot be afraid of Egypt.

“We are preparing very well [for the game against Egypt], some of the players have just arrived,” Siasia told TheNFF.com

“Nigeria is not afraid. Nigeria cannot be afraid of Egypt, we are playing in home what can we be afraid of? Not even
away, even in the away game we cannot be afraid. We know they are a good team and we have to be very ready. We just
have to continue like that until the foreign-based players come. I told the foreign-based players that everybody can play,”

“We don’t have to be Bayern or anything, we want players who will go out there and give 120 percent on that day. We are not messing around, this is a very difficult game we are going to play. I don’t want to punish anyone, I want guys who go out there and play for us with a serious mind and achieve what we are here for. Me under pressure? I have never been under pressure before, why now?” he concluded.

It is worth noting that the 48-year-old coach has taken a disciplinary action against three of his squad players after
arriving late in training without a permission by excluding them from the list for the Egypt games.