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Both countries are the highest-ranked sides in the group and have between them ten Afcon titles which clearly points to a two-horse race for the sole automatic qualifying ticket to Gabon 2017.
The Super Eagles will however do well to remember the ghosts of Calabar past, when the Congolese team overran them 3-1 to pick three away points which precipitated a downward spiral that lead to Nigeria failing to qualify for the 2015 event in Equatorial Guinea.
Tanzania and Chad might look relatively easy on paper, quite cliche to say, but truly evident in the way so-called smaller teams have done a number on much fancied sides on the continent recently.
Chad are considered by many to be the dark horse in Group G, a dark horse that might put spanner in the works for the bigger sides when hostilities commence in June.
Coached by Emmanuel Tregoat, a man who has barely five years experience in top flight coaching, Chad are ranked at 151 on the latest Fifa rankings and have never qualified for an Africa Cup of Nations event or the World Cup.
They however want to change all that as Tregoat has insisted he is going to scour France and Europe in search of foreign-born talent who are eligible for Chad to compete with the local-based players and a few professionals to make a solid team.
The Federation Tchadienne de Football (FTF) want to raise a team that will qualify them for their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations and have given Tregoat the mandate to scour round France for players who are eligible for Chad.
Chad drew 0-0 with Yemen in a recent friendly in Doha as they prepare to face Nigeria in their first game in Group G on the weekend of June 12-15.
Tregoat will count on the likes of Yaya Kerim, Ezechiel N’Doussel, captain Marius Mbaiam, Hassan Hissein of Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side, El-Kanemi Warriors and Jules Hamidou of Swiss side, Biel-Bienne, to do damage to the Eagles when the two teams clash.
Chad are not powerhouses in Africa, but are looking towards building their side to be one of the teams to cause a shock as the 2017 Afcon qualifiers approach. They want to churn out players like Japhet N’Doram, who is unarguably the most famous player to come out of that country.
N’Doram was a powerful striker in the 1990’s for FC Nantes where he made his name and later became director of football and also managed the side for a season.
Tregoat will hope his new generation of stars can emulate Japhet N’Doram and even surpass the Chadian great by leading his latest pack to qualify Chad for their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations appearance.
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