Stephen Keshi confident of Super Eagles revival

Nigeria's new coach Keshi is confident he will steer the Eagles to success

New Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi is confident he can bring back the glory days to the Super Eagles.

The ex-defender was handed the post on Wednesday with the mandate of steering the side to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and 214 World Cup.

The 49-year-old, who previously worked as an assistant coach of Nigeria, is delighted to return to the side.

"It is a good feeling that I am back. I am just hoping that things will go well," Keshi told BBC Sport.

"I have been here before working as an assistant to Jo Bonfrere and Amodu Shaibu.

"It is not an easy job when it comes to football. You have millions of coaches telling you, mostly after the game, which line-up you should have played.

"I will try to do to my utmost best to bring back joy to Nigerian people. There are challenges all over the place but I just have to keep my focus and see what happens."

Keshi, who captained Nigeria at the 1994 World Cup finals, was handed the post on Wednesday following the dismissal of Samson Siasia for his failure to lead the team to next year's Africa Cup of Nations.

Having been given a deal that goes until 2014, Keshi's contract stipulates that he must qualify for South Africa 2013 and reach the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The former captain of the Super Eagles says he won't rush into making any predictions insisting only hard work will make him succeed.

"It is too early to tell. I want to take it match after match and every game is important. Every game is like a World Cup final for me," he said.

"I don't want to visualise what is going to happen in 2014.

"I need to prepare the players mentally for each so will go step-by-step to try to confront our ambition towards the 2014 World Cup."

Keshi achieved a major qualifying success when leading unfancied Togo to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

He also had a sting with the Mali national team.