The secretary-general of Nigeria’s football association, Musa Amadu, said he was pleased to see Nigeria paired with Ethiopia in the World Cup qualifiers play-offs in Africa. Ethiopia are the lowest ranked team among the ten qualified African teams, coming 93rd in the FIFA global rankings, and 25th in Africa.

“I actually think we couldn’t have had a better draw. We got the lowest ranked team in the draw. They are number 25 in Africa and 93 in the world, and we getting to play the first leg away from home. It is really the best we could have got out of the draw.” Amadu said. Despite his optimism regarding the draw, Amadu warned the Super Eagles not to underestimate Ethiopia.

“We need to be well-prepared,” he said. Last time we were in Ethiopia for an African Nations Cup qualifier, we had to scrape to get a 2-2 draw.

“We can’t take them for granted. They qualified from a difficult group including Botswana and South Africa and we really must prepare very well against them.”