Sewnet Bishaw: We’ll give Nigeria a good fight 

THE Super Eagles of Nigeria were on Monday paired with Ethiopia for the 2014 World Cup play-off. The draw was supervised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo, Egypt.

The Ethiopia-Nigeria fixture, like the other four pairings to decide Africa’s five representatives at next year’s FIFA World Cup, will be decided over two legs with the overall winner qualifying to play at the mundial in Brazil.

In the other pairings, Ivory Coast will face Senegal; qualifiers by default Tunisia will confront Cameroon; Ghana are paired with Egypt, the only country on the African continent to have a hundred per cent record in qualifying, while Burkina Faso will square it up with Algeria.

History favours the Super Eagles to fly above the Walia Antelopes as the Ethiopian national team are known.

Both countries have met seven times with Nigeria winning on four occasions. The last time out was at the Africa Cup of Nations early this year in South Africa. Two penalty kicks taken by Victor Moses separated them in the group match.

Two other meetings ended in draws, while the Ethiopians’ famous 1-0 win came on April 11, 1993 in a 1994 Africa Cup of Nations. That winner remains the only goal Ethiopia have scored against Nigeria since their first meeting in 1982.

Speaking with cafonline after Monday’s pairing, Sewnet Bishaw, head coach of Ethiopia said: “It is a good draw for both teams and we will be looking forward to playing Nigeria again after meeting them at AFCON 2013. 

At that time we were just happy to get back into top level competition and were inexperienced but now we have had many more matches at this level so we will give it a good go against Nigeria.”

Ethiopia host Nigeria between October 11 and 15 with the reverse fixture in Nigeria scheduled to hold between November 15 and 19.