Nigeria icon Jay-Jay Okocha has warned the current crop of Super Eagles not to take their upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying play-offs against Ghana lightly.
The ex-Paris Saint-Germain man has insisted that every time the West African nations clash, it is a matter of national pride, and with a place at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar up for grabs, the stakes will be higher than ever.
For Okocha, it will not matter if Nigeria play beautiful or ugly football, as long as they get to the global showpiece at the end of the year.
"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.
"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.
"For me, the signs are there that we have the team to take us to where we want to be in global football.
"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."
If Nigeria are to qualify for the World Cup, they will need to accomplish something they have been unable to achieve in 16 years, and that is beat Ghana. The Super Eagles' last victory over their opponents was a 1-0 win in the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations.
