Abuja - The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has named Nigerian referees to handle one of the first round matches of the 2014 Champions League.
The Referees’ Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) released the list of the referees on Wednesday in Abuja.
The list also released names of Nigerian referees to handle one of the African Women Championship qualifying matches.
According to the list, one complete set of Nigerian male referees will handle the second leg match between Al-Ahly Benghazi of Libya and Berekum Chelsea of Ghana.
The other set who are females will officiate the second leg match of the African Women Championship (AWC) qualifiers between Ghana and Burkina Faso.
For the Champions League encounter to be played in Libya between the weekend of March 7 and 9, Abubakar Ago will be at the centre and will be assisted by Peter Edibi.
Abel Baba will be the second Assistant referee, while Henry Ogunyamodi is the fourth official.
The AWC qualifier taking place in Ghana between the weekend of Feb. 28 and March 2 will see Folusho Ajayi as the centre referee.
The first Assistant referee will be Bosede Momoh with Hulda Nkwocha as the second Assistant referee, while Hadiza Musa is the fourth official.
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Galatasaray manager Roberto Mancini
believes Chelsea have "an 80% chance" of beating his side to advance
into the Champions League quarter-finals.
The Premier League leaders visit the
Turkish champions on Wednesday for the first leg of their last-16 tie.
Ex-Manchester City boss Mancini
insists Chelsea, who have won the Champions League and Europa League in the
past two seasons, are strong favourites.
"They have fantastic players
used to playing games like this," he said.
"I think they have an 80%
chance of going through."
Mancini, who took charge of the Istanbul
club in September, believes the Blues are capable of winning trophies this
season, despite Jose Mourinho claiming his team were "too young" to
challenge for major honours.
"They have really good players
- these players who can change the game at any moment," added the Italian.
Mancini says ex-Chelsea striker
Didier Drogba, who is facing the Blues for the first time since leaving in
2012, and Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder are vital to Galatasaray's hopes of
reaching the last eight for the second successive season.
"Didier was an important man,
an important player for Chelsea," said the Italian. "Wesley won a
Champions League at Inter Milan under Mourinho.
"They have a good relationship
with him, but today, for 90 minutes, I think they will be enemies.
"After 90 minutes, they can go
and have a dinner together. But for 90 minutes they should play at more than
100%. We need Didier and Wesley to play very, very well."
Earlier this week, Mancini claimed
some of the credit for that Champions League win - Mourinho succeeded the
Italian at Inter.
But the Chelsea manager dismissed
Mancini's influence in the 2010 success: "From 11 players, he didn't work
with six of them. So he made a five-a-side team because I played with only five
players from his team."
Wednesday's tie will not be the
first reunion between Drogba and his old boss Mourinho, who signed him for the
west London club from Marseille in 2004.
The Ivory Coast striker played for
Galatasaray in a Champions League quarter-final tie against Mourinho's Real
Madrid side last season, although the Portuguese boss admits it is still a
"difficult and strange feeling" to face Drogba.
"But we have to do our job. We
know he wants to do his job," he said.
"Last year it happened the
same. I want to do my job to help my team, and he tried to do his by scoring
goals, which he did.
"But I admit it's a strange
feeling we have to try and forget during the game." Mourinho worries over Mikel's fitness
 |
| José Mourinho |
The pair were both absent through injury for last Saturday's dramatic 1-0 Premier League victory over Everton, which saw captain John Terry mark his return from a muscle strain with an injury-time winner.
With January midfield recruit Nemanja Matic ineligible for the Champions League, Mourinho is keen for his options not to be further depleted when Chelsea travel to Turkey for the first leg of Wednesday's last-16 tie.
"We have three days so let's see," Mourinho told reporters after the Everton game.
"With Mikel and David Luiz, I don't know if they can recover. It's important we have at least one of them because we don't have Matic for the Champions League."
Mourinho also offered an update on minor injuries to Oscar and Ramires; the latter was introduced as a half-time substitute against Everton after the former failed to shake off a pre-game complaint.
"It's not a dangerous one, just a painful one," said Chelsea's boss of Oscar's injury. "He said he could cope with the situation, clearly he couldn't.
"Ramires had a similar situation to Oscar, I tried to protect him and not play him but the game demanded I play him. Clearly, though, he could cope with the situation."
 |
| John Obi Mikel |
The 21-year old midfielder is seen as a long-term replacement for the Nigerian midfielder, who has been told he can leave Chelsea for a small fee.The Marseille player has impressed with his consistent displays in League 1 this campaign and Chelsea are believed to be high on a list of admirers of the talented player.
Mikel has made just nine Premier League starts under Mourinho this season and has failed to make more than 20 since the 2010/11 season.The Nigerian international was left out of Chelsea's squad in yesterday's 1-0 victory against Everton.
Jose Mourinho seems to be happy with the performance of newly recruited Nemanja Matic who started the game at Stamford Bridge alongside Frank Lampard, Oscar and Willian in the team's midfield.Despite speculations that Mikel would leave Chelsea last summer, the Anambra state born player stayed back. However, current situations may see him leave Chelsea after the World Cup in Brazil.
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