Head coach of Nigeria, Gernot Rohr has confirmed that Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi, will start in Wednesday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, clash against Guinea.
The German tactician stated that Akpeyi will be in goal for the three-time African champions against the Syli Stars because the 32-year-old did well in that position against Burundi.
He added that the shot-stopper will be maintained as the number-one ahead of Katsina United’s Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Deportivo de La Coruña’s Francis Uzoho.
Nigeria head to the match after defeating Burundi 1-0 over the weekend while Guinea played a draw against Madagascar.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Egypt, Rohr said: ”Akpeyi played the first match because in the three weeks preparations he became number one.
”I don’t decide in this position alone because we have a good goalkeeper coach Alloy and even my assistant Imama is a former goalkeeper so we speak about this problem everyday each time we are together, so we decided together that Akpeyi starts as number one.”
Rohr added: ”At first Ezenwa had a little knee injury in one of the first training sessions in Asaba, so he had to rest and came back slowly, so he lost his number one position because of his injury.
”Akpeyi played in the friendlies, he did well and there was no reason to change. Now Ezenwa is coming back and there’s real competition because we agreed Francis Uzoho is number three, so for the game for tomorrow we will have a big decision to take who will start the game.
”I think that Daniel Akpeyi with the clean sheet in the first match and very difficult ball he stopped in the match against Burundi, I think he’ll be maintained as the number one.”
