Emenike: The pressure has to be there

“You can't hide from pressure. Football is a game of pressure. Everyone expects big things from you.”

The broad shoulders of Emmanuel Emenike look capable of withstanding their fair share of expectations, but after Nigeria's opening 0-0 draw with Iran – where the reigning African champions largely failed to ignite – he accepts there will be even more than usual when they face Group F rivals Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As a result the team have come in for some criticism from the football-loving streets of Abudja, Lagos and across the rest of their West African homeland on the other side of the Atlantic, but the burly Fenerbahçe striker feels they must take it in their stride. “When things don't go well, everyone speaks, everyone talks the way they like,” he told.

“But what can you do? You just have to carry on working hard, that's all you can do. The pressure has to be there. The match didn't go the way we wanted, we just have to carry on and win the Bosnia and Herzegovina game and see what happens. The game against Iran was disappointing.”

The passion for the Super Eagles is huge amongst the 170 million people in the continent's most populous country, and when Stephen Keshi's side step out into the Arena Pantanal at 11pm African time, Emenike expects day-to-day life will be put on the back burner. “Nigeria is a football-loving country and even for U17 or U20 matches everyone locks up their shops,” the joint top-scorer at last year's CAF Africa Cup of Nations explained. “Even the people on the street go in to watch Nigeria play, so we always want to try our best to make the country happy, because everyone always wants to watch Nigeria play and always wants us to do well.”