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| A fan of the Super Eagles of Nigeria |
Real Betis midfielder Nosa Igiebor is doubtful for Wednesday’s Africa Nations Cup warm-up game against Catalonia. The Eagles managers were yet to hear from the player in Faro, Portugal today as the team prepared for Tuesday flight.
“We are still waiting words from Nosa at the moment, so we cannot say he will be in Catalonia or Faro for the game,” a team official said.
However, Celtic’s Rabiu Ibrahim is expected to link up with the rest of the squad when the team arrive in Spain early on Tuesday.
Ibrahim was expected to have arrived in Faro earlier, but delays in his flight schedule meant he was advised to join the team in Spain instead of travelling to Portugal, where the team are camping for the African competition.
Ibrahim and Villarreal striker Ikechukwu Uche will be the last two players to join up with the Eagles before the game.
Wednesday’s match against Catalonia selected that is managed by Dutch legend Johann Cryuff will be played at the home of La Liga side Espanyol starting at 9pm Nigerian time.
While the Eagles are training to beat the rest of Africa, the Catalonians are making strong political statement with the game.
Catalonia matches gather together every year more people than any other European team for just a friendly match. And right now Catalonia is living a very special social and political moment. The new Catalan government, with the support of the main parties has just announced that 2014 is the year when a referendum for independence will be held.
A vast majority of Catalonia’s population (over 2 million votes) supports the new Government goal and, according to last election votes and recent polls, most citizens wish to become a new European and independent state. The Spanish state strongly opposes to the referendum but Catalans seem very determined to do it.”
Barcelona stars, Xavi, Cesc Fabregas, Victor Valdés, Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué are expected to feature for Catalonia.
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