Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets’ head coach, Fatai Folorunsho Amoo says his side learnt a huge lesson from their 1-0 loss to Coe d’Ivoire in their first match at the ongoing West African Football Union (WAFU) Zone-B championship in Lome, Togo and promised that they will make all necessary corrections for their next mach this weekend.
Megasportsaena.com reports that Amoo further assured that the Eaglets will be a lot more improved when they face their eternal arch-rivals Ghana in a must-win clash this Saturday, as he Nigerian lads need to pick all three points in order to stay alive in the competition.
Although Amoo added that he is elated that all 25 players he took to the competition in Lome, which serves as qualifiers for this year’s Africa U-17 Nations Cup, scaled the dreaded MRI age test and they have been tagged as the youngest team at the contest, as he says winning matches is more important to him than accolades.
He was, however, relieved to a large extent that his side was not caught in the web, as WAFU had insisted on eligibility for only players on Grade 4 and below, after Confederation of African Football (CAF) earlier warned that a whole will be thrown out on account of one failed age test.
With that done and passed, the Eaglets will now hope to beat Ghana on Saturday at Municipal Stadium in Lome, starting at 5pm Nigeria time, in order to make up for the loss to Cote d’Ivoire, as a draw may not be enough to get them to the semi-finals.
The coach also reflected on the defeat by CIV on Wednesday, and admitted that his boys suffered stage fright, but promised that they will do better in Saturday’s showdown, which will be a rematch of the last encounter between both sides, when the Eaglets stopped the Ghanaians with a late goal two years ago in Niamey, Niger Republic.
Amoo submitted: “It was a difficult game for the boys, many of them have not had this type of opportunity and as a result they were a bit jittery.
“We also played against a more formidable team given the preparations. They can do better. We have taken note of the mistakes and we will make the necessary corrections.”
