| TUR CUP 01:00 PM Giresunspor VS Istanbul Basaksehir |
| TUR CUP 06:30 PM Fenerbahce VS Istanbulspor |
| ITA B 08:30 PM Parma VS Spezia 1x |
| TUR CUP 01:00 PM Giresunspor VS Istanbul Basaksehir 2x |
| SCO 08:45 PM Hearts VS Hibernian 1x |
| SCO 08:45 PM Hamilton Academical VS Kilmarnock 2x |
| TUN 04:00 PM US Monastir VS CS Sfaxien 2x |
FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 African Qualifiers – As Nigeria look to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China, team captain Ike Diogu reaffirmed his passion to play for his parents’ country.
An emblematic player for Nigeria over the course of the past five years, the 6ft 9in (2.05m) power forward has experienced joy, frustration and hope while wearing the jersey of Africa’s No.1 team.
In his national team debut at the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Venezuela, Diogu lined up along some of Nigeria’s finest players – including Al Farouq Aminu, Tony Skinn, Ade Dagunduro, and Chamberlain Oguchi, just to mention a few – as the team took the world by storm.
FIBA AfroBasket 2015 title – although he sat out the entire tournament due to a leg injury suffered a few days before the start of the competition – and two consecutive Olympic appearances give Diogu a sense of worthiness.
However, there is still an accomplishment missing in his illustrious career: playing at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the sport’s biggest stage.
In February, Nigeria will go up against Uganda, Mali, and Rwanda in Group B of the first round of the African Qualifiers. If they finish in the top three, they will advance to the 12-team second round of the Qualifiers.
“As I’ve always stated, my passion is to continue to represent Nigeria for as long as I can. So I’m excited to be the captain and look forward to a very successful run,” Diogu told FIBA.Basketball.
“The World Cup is a huge goal of ours. We have not played in one [since 2006]. So we want to make sure to put our best foot forward in the Qualifiers not take anything for granted at all. So It will be a challenge with the new rules but one we are up for.”
Nigeria’s recent ascent can’t be explained without the impact of Diogu, who has led his country in scoring in four straight major international tournaments.
Two months ago, at FIBA AfroBasket 2017, he did a bit of everything for his team, leading all players in scoring with an average of 22.0 points per game and grabbing a team-best 8.7 rebounds.
While Nigeria fell to hosts Tunisia in the Final, Diogu’s impact and value were recognized as he was named the tournament’s MVP.
Looking ahead of the Qualifiers, Diogu explained how and why Nigeria became Africa’s highest ranked team.
“Nigeria has an amazing talent pool and since there are so many good players that’s what makes it so tough to choose from.
But when we finally kept a core group together and built the cohesion that you need, we were able to surprise people and will big games and I still think people have not seen Nigeria’s best team with its best players because that will be a very scary sight,” he said.
culled from FIBA.
Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr is set to return to the country from holidays ahead of the AITEO CAF awards holding in Accra, Ghana.
In a message delivered by the Super Eagles media officer, Toyin Ibitoye, the Franco-German tactician will be returning on Saturday as he look set to attend the Event in Accra.
Toyin Ibitoye further revealed that Coach Rohr will also be using the opportunity to visit the Camp of the home-based Eagles as they intensify preparations ahead of CHAN Tournament in Morocco.
The 64-year-old Rohr was among the final three Coaches in contention for the best Coach of the year Awards.
The final three-man shortlist for the 2017 CAF African Footballer of the Year includes Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Nigeria international and Chelsea star Victor Moses could not make the final three.
Meanwhile, Former Nigeria stars Justice Christopher and Victor Ezeji have urged Ahmed Musa to quit Leicester City in January as the winger has found game time limited at the King Power Stadium.
Musa, who joined the Foxes from CSKA Moscow for a club record £19.5m in 2016, has appeared just once for the former Premier League champions, a second round Carabao Cup tie against Championship side Sheffield United, in which he scored.
The Super Eagles forward had been linked with a move to Hull City – where he would have reunited with his former CSKA Moscow manager Leonid Slutsky – the summer – but a transfer failed to come to fruition.
However, there are rumours that he might return to former club CSKA Moscow, while Aston Villa are also interested in the player.
Jose Mourinho pointed to the money Manchester City have spent on full-backs after Manchester United’s 2-2 draw with Burnley.
Lingard answered a half-time SOS with United staring down the barrel at 2-0 down but pulled one back with an instinctive back-heel before striking through a packed box in added time to cap a frantic finale to leave United 12 points behind the leaders Man City.
In salvaging a share of the spoils the England winger, who also had a shot deflected off the crossbar from point-blank range by Nick Pope, robbed the the spotlight from Burnley’s Steven Defour, who bent it like Beckham with a sublime free-kick following Ashley Barnes’ opener.
Mourinho said: “We are in the second year of trying to rebuild a football team you know is not one of the best teams in the world. Man City buy full backs for the price of a striker.”
When asked what went wrong in the first period, Mourinho replied: “I don’t know how they score a goal from a free kick, rebound here, rebound there. Similar goal that we conceeded in other matches and then they defend for 95 minutres, second shot they score again.
“For us to score two goals we need to play in their half for 45 minutes, with only one defender. The end product of so much dominance, two goals, is a miserable number. Lingard come in and helped the team, Lingard and Mkhitaryan gave us a good dynamic.
“All the boys accepted the risk to only play with Jones (in defence). All the boys accepted the risk that we took, at least the point is not a defeat and is the mimnimum the boys deserve for such spirit.”
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