Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles are set to go out in battle against Senegal on Monday night at the stadium that will host the final of this year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland, megasportsarena.com reports.
Both West African teams were condemned to clash early in the global youth competition, following Nigeria’s inability to finish among the top-two sides in Group D, while Senegal emerged first in their pool and are deemed favourites to reach the quarter-finals.
Paul Aigbogun’s Nigerian side finished third in Group D with four points from three games seeing them among the four best third-placed teams from the six groups that made it to the knockout stages, while Senegal won Group A after two victories and a draw.
The Junior Teranga Lions are also runners-up from the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations in February, when Nigeria could only place fourth, after falling to South Africa in the losers’ final, and their performances so far at Poland 2019 have left much to be desired.
Consequently, many fans feel Monday’s round of 16 clash with Senegal is symbolic of only taking the Flying Eagles ‘so near yet so far’ from where the ongoing competition’s final will be played on 15th June.
Before then, the 18,000-capacity Stadion Widzewa in Lodz will host two round of 16 matches, one on Sunday and the second on Monday evening, when Nigeria battle Senegal from 7.30pm.
Ahead of the game, Aigbogun and his lads arrived in Lodz on Saturday, as the players and officials left Qubus Hotel in Bielsko-Biala after breakfast, then moved into their new abode at Hotel Ambasador Premium, located in the heart of Poland’s third largest city, just in time for lunch.
The seven-time African champions are yet to impress in Poland since their opening day 4-0 lashing of Qatar in Tychy, with goals from Maxwell Effiom, Henry Offia, Ayotomiwa Dele-Bashiru and Aliu Salawudeen.
A 2-0 loss to USA and 1-1 draw with Ukraine, both in Bielsko-Biala, saw the Flying Eagles sneak into the knockout rounds, much to the disdain of their fans, who are njo longer holding unto any iota of belief inn the team’s ability to move further in the competition.
However, a media release by the information department of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) stated Sunday that the spirit in camp is high following qualification, and the prospect of reaching the quarter-finals appears to have renewed determination among the players.
However, their impending battle in Lodz, nicknamed ‘The Promised Land,’ does not hold much promise for Africa, as this early knockout tie between Nigeria and Senegal will further reduce the number of teams from the continent competing in the ongoing Youth Mundial.
The game is preceded by the fact that South Africa’s Amajita are already back in Johannesburg, following group stage elimination, while continent champions, Mali face an uphill task against Argentina on Tuesday.
Dramatically, half of the Poland 2019 round of 16 fixtures all have teams from the same continent locking horns, as Africa has Nigeria facing off with Senegal, South America’s Uruguay and Ecuador are also up in battle, Asia’s Japan and South Korea clash, as do Europe’s Italy and Poland.
