Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets’ coach, Fatai Folorunsho Amoo has declared that he is focusing only on how his side can get maximum points from Wednesday’s first group mach at the West African Football Union (WAFU) Zone-B competition in Lome, Togo, megasportsarena.com reports.
With the Eaglets set to do battle with eternal rivals, Cote d’Ivoire in their first match in Group B, before taking on Ghana at the weekend, ‘Arsenal’ admitted that they have an uphill task ahead of them, but he also assured that his wards are up to the task of making Nigerians proud.
A preview by the communications department of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) noted that the five-time champions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup will file out for the encounter that will see both teams desperately looking to pick all three points at Lome’s Stade Municipal.
With the Group B having only three teams and each team billed to play only two matches, after which the top two will qualify for the semi-finals, any that loses its first game could be staring the sorrow of elimination in the eye, which Amoo stressed he and his lads want to avoid.
The NFF’s media unit noted further that three points on Wednesday would set the Eaglets on the right path to making progress at the competition that serves as qualifiers for this year’s African U17 Cup of Nations scheduled to take place in Morocco.
Victory on Wednesday would also serve as a morale-booster ahead of the potentially explosive second group clash with Ghana at the same venue on Saturday, in a game that would see flak exchanged between two Anglophone West African rivals that have seven cadet world titles on the table between them.
Before hen, heading into Wednesday’s encounter, starting 4pm, Amoo said he is confident that his rookies can step up to the challenge and assured that the five-time world champions will go all out to take the lead in a group that also has two-time global lords, Ghana as their other rivals.
Amoo added: “We know what we are in for – it is not going to be a stroll. This is a fierce competition going by the calibre of opponents we have to battle right from the group stage.
“However, if we must qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations, we have to conquer all on our way to get there. Our focus is to get a good result from the first game and then consolidating as the tournament progresses.
“We are here for business; we will not under-rate any team or think there is a team that is too tough to conquer. Our objective on Wednesday is the three points at stake and then we take things from there.”
