Do not take us lightly, Kanu warns Sven

Arsenal striker Kanu has warned England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson to write off Nigeria at his peril ahead of their World Cup clash next month.

Kanu was at the heart of an accomplished Nigerian display last night as the Super Eagles brought the Republic of Ireland’s unbeaten two-year Lansdowne Road record to a shock end.

Nine wins and two draws had preceded what was the first meeting between the sides, and it was fully expected the African side would fall the way of three other friendly victims this year in Russia, Denmark and the United States.

But Kanu believes unpredictable Nigeria are at their most dangerous given little chance of success, as was the case last night and again in what is looked upon as the ‘Group of Death’ at the World Cup.

Coach Festus Onigbinde’s side are the outsiders in a group which contains England, tournament favourites Argentina and Sweden, particularly after just scraping through the qualifying tournament.

However according to Kanu, that suits Nigeria just fine as he said: ‘‘So much will depend on our first match against Argentina.

‘‘They are a top class team and many people are saying they will win the World Cup, but we won’t be intimidated. If we get a good result in that match it will set us up for the other two games.

‘‘Sweden will be hard, while England have some excellent young players and are a very strong team, so this will be a difficult group for us, we know that.

‘‘But anyone who decides we have no chance to go through will be making a big mistake. Nigeria have gone into competitions as underdogs before and done well, so I feel this can happen again.’’

Nigeria’s biggest problem is that Onigbinde does not appear to know who to take to Japan as he has been in charge for just under three months following Shaibu Amodu’s resignation in the wake of his country’s African Cup of Nations semi-final exit.

Onigbinde, who has just one more match to finalise his 23-man squad, against Jamaica at Loftus Road tomorrow, has come in for considerable criticism due to his lack of decisiveness and the amount of players he has looked at in such a short period of time.

A dispute over World Cup bonus payments has hardly helped Nigeria’s cause, leaving Kanu to readily concede his team are ill-prepared, although that could spell trouble for their opponents.

‘‘I’m surprised to see so many changes ahead of this tournament, but that is the way it goes in Nigeria at times,’’ added Kanu in the official match programme.

‘‘It was the same before the Olympics in 1996 and we still managed to win the gold medal that time.

‘‘But we haven’t had enough time to prepare on this occasion, so who knows what will happen this summer. We can do well, but it will not be easy for us.

‘‘There are so many new players and some of our most experienced stars have been missing in recent games, but Nigeria can still be a danger to anyone.’’

Onigbinde has admitted the Nigerian FA have encountered visa problems with some of the players, which led to a handful including Chelsea’s injured star Celestine Babayaro only arriving in Dublin just hours ahead of last night’s match.

A squad of more than 30 will be on hand for the game with Jamaica, with the vast majority then flying out early next week to Japan where Onigbinde will announce his final selection.

At least he is free of injury problems, which has led to him feel sorry for Eriksson as the Swede has hit one stumbling block after another in recent weeks.

‘‘It’s unfortunate my colleague handling the English team is having problems at this time and I actually pity him,’’ said Onigbinde.

‘‘My heart goes out to the players who have set their minds on going to the World Cup, and then something happens. That is most unfortunate. When good players can’t go, it must be demoralising.’’