Coach Sewnet Bishaw was smiling after Ethiopia's workout yesterday. Despite reducing the team's workload in fear of over training them, he must have been still happy at what he saw from his sweating foals.
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Happy as well as confident because the normally reserved helmsman, now issued his sternest of warnings to the African champion when he told supersport.com "We don't only want to beat them in Addis but we want to give them a football lesson and kill them off."
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It's as if there exists bad blood between the two nations and to some it actually does. Let's go down Memory lane.
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Ethiopia costing Nigeria two valuable points in Addis the last time the two teams met there - to many an expert - is the real reason Nigeria did not make it to the Equatorial Guinea/Gabon Afcon. That draw put the Eagles in the precarious position of not just beating Guinea, but doing so by a certain number of goals in her last game. She failed and for the first time in three decades was not invited to Africa's biggest party. To return the favour, two late penalties by Victor Moses now saw Nigeria expel Ethiopia at the last Afcon in South Africa herself, leaving many an Antelope fan furious and bitter.