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Flying Eagles coach, Ladan Bosso, believes he has the men to edge Uganda off the way in their Africa U-20 Cup of Nations quarter-final clash on Thursday and reach the U-20 World Cup finals in Indonesia.
The U-20 World Cup holds from May 20th to June 11.
Both teams clash at the 22,000-capacity Suez Canal Authority Stadium in Ismailia and Bosso says his side will not underrate the Hippos, who finished top of Group B, which also has Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. They defeated Central African Republic 2-1, drew 2-2 and 0-0 with Congo and South Sudan respectively.
It took a drawing of lots by the Confederation of African Football to separate Uganda and Congo and determine the winner of Group B, as both teams finished with the same statistics.
“Before we left our training camp in Morocco, the Nigerian Football Federation president, Ibrahim Gusau, told us clearly that the first objective should be getting a ticket to the FIFA World Cup. We are at that most important stage now and we cannot afford to falter,” Bosso said in a statement issued by the NFF’s Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire.
“We are aware that Nigerians are looking up to us to deliver. While our mission remains bagging the World Cup ticket, we are also eyeing the trophy, which is still a number of matches away. For the moment, we have Uganda in our view and we are working hard to see that we control proceedings on Thursday.”
Two-time silver medallists (1989 and 2005) and one-time bronze medallists (1985) Flying Eagles are seeking to make another appearance at the U-20 World Cup finals.
They finished in third-place when the tournament was staged in then USSR in 1985, beating the host nation on penalty shoot-out in the bronze medal match. Four years later, in Saudi Arabia, the Flying Eagles lost 2-0 to Portugal in a classic final in Riyadh. And in 2005, Lionel Messi and Argentina were 2-1 winners in the final match in The Netherlands.