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By Johnny Edward.
Ladan Bosso and his Flying Eagles team are convinced that they can kick-start their quest to qualify for the next round of the ongoing Africa U-20 Cup of Nations tourney and represent Africa at this year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup finals in Indonesia later this year, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The seven-time winners of the competition began the tournament on a shaky note losing 1-0 to Senegal last Sunday but could revive their bid to reach the quarter-final of the competition if they defeat hosts, Egypt at the Cairo International Stadium.
Egypt also played out a goalless draw against Mozambique in their first game.
Bosso will be without injured Daniel Daga and forward Ahmed Abdullahi, who was sent off in the 90th minute in the same game for a second bookable offence, for the crucial game against Egypt. The coach revealed that his team remained confident ahead of the game and the errors noticed from the defeat to Senegal have been worked on in training.
“There are high expectations at home and with the level of preparation and support from the federation, we have no reason not to give our best,” Bosso said ahead of the game.
“Nevertheless, we’ve lost to Senegal in a manner in which we shouldn’t have, but then we just have to check out where we went wrong.
“I want people to know that the spirit is very high, though the morale was down after the first game we as coaches have to raise the spirit of the players.
“I think losing the first match is not something that cannot be changed, it was even good that will be lost at the beginning than lose in the end.
“We have time to adjust and we must show Nigerians, we hope that after adjusting to the errors we will have a good result.
“We seek the prayers and cooperation of Nigerians,” he said.
Right back, Augustine Njoku also shared his coach’s buoyancy of recording a favourable result against Egypt.
Njoku also dispelled talks of the team under pressure ahead of the game and added that the team will reach the semi-final.
“We are not under pressure as we play Egypt, the host nation,” Njoku said.
“We just have to show the right character and attitude that will make us win Egypt. We want to play very well and correct the error that happened in the game against Senegal.
“Our target is to pick the world cup ticket here in Egypt and if possible win the tournament. I want to appeal to Nigerians to keep on praying for the team.
“We are very hopeful of getting back on track with a good result against Egypt,” he said.