2021 AFCON Qualifiers: Benin bank on local stars to beat Super Eagles

Benin Republic head coach Michel Dussuyer will now count on local league stars for this month’s 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying games Nigeria and Sierra Leone due to the unavailability of a number of his foreign-based stars, reports Completesport.com.

Dussuyer will be without several of his key stars after clubs in France announced they will not be releasing their players for international games outside Europe during the upcoming window.

The Frenchman was earlier scheduled to release his list for both games on Tuesday, but it was postponed to Thursday (today) due to uncertainties surrounding the availability of the top foreign pros.

“We are still waiting for the list. Somebody is sure when it will come out,”a reliable source in the Benin Football Federation told Completesports.com.

“The big difficulty now is that we won’t have our players in France for the games. We have over half our players in France and it is difficult for the coach to find a way around it at the moment.

“We are probably going towards a local team which will be reinforced by the players playing in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Algeria and Tunisia.”

Benin will host the Super Eagles on March 27 at the Stade Charles de Gaulle, Porto-Novo, and then face Sierra Leone three days later in Conakry.

The Squirrels will secure a place in Cameroon 2021 with a win against the Super Eagles.