On Monday evening, Nigeria and Burkina Faso played a 1 - 1 draw in their opening Group C fixture at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit.

Spartak Moscow front-man Emmanuel Emenike dashed into the penalty area, shrugged off the challenge of two Burkina Faso defenders  to score the opening goal in the 23rd minute. It was a goal made in the old Soviet Union. Ukraine based forward Brown Ideye provided the assist after he intelligently knocked the ball to Emenike.

Substitute Alain Traoré nicked a point for the Stallions just before the referee's final whistle. Deep into stoppage time, the Lorient striker capitalized on the Eagles' lax defending to fire in from close range.

Despite the 1-1 draw, Nigeria handler Stephen Keshi has insisted that the Eagles have a chance to qualify for the knock out stages of the African Cup of Nations.

In his post match comments, Keshi said: ''Nothing will bring us down. They did everthing I asked of them.This is only the fourth game we are playing as a group in the 25 days or so that we have been together.Our next game is now very, very important.''

It must be noted that Nigeria is now in a tight corner. Any thing short of victory in Friday's game against defending champions Zambia could reduce the team's chances of progressing to the quarter-finals of the African Cup.