On Saturday, The General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, Dr Mohammed Sanusi paid a courtesy visit to the team training ground in Ismaila Egypt and charged the seven-time champions to play differently when they confront the Cup holders on Monday afternoon.
Sanusi said,“I have no doubt that you have the ability to rise to the occasion. Monday is the occasion, because you are not only playing against the defending champions, you also must win to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. The first objective for any team in any competition that is a qualifier for a bigger tournament is to qualify, followed by the second objective of winning the trophy.
“ The NFF and the Nigeria football fraternity are fully behind you and giving you the maximum support, and you have to repay their encouragement and prayers with a World Cup ticket,” However, you cannot afford to pull any punches on Monday as only the semi-finalists will qualify to fly Africa’s flag at the FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile later in the year.
Flying Eagles unbeaten in their group B campaign, however finished second behind another set of Lion Cubs from Morocco, and had to proceed to Ismailia for their game against title-holders Senegal. Senegal also finished second in their group C, which also included Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Central African Republic.
The 19-team finals have been whittled down to eight contenders, with Tanzania and Zambia eliminated in group A, Tunisia (despite their three points) and Kenya thrown out from group B and Central African Republic stopped in group C.
