By Amosu Adeboye, LAGOS
Flying Eagles head coach Paul Aigbogun has declared the readiness of his team to give their very best in all group phase matches at the Africa U20 Cup of Nations in Niger Republic, in order to qualify to represent Africa at the FIFA U20 World Cup slated for Poland mid-year.
Nigeria will play host nation Niger Republic, South Africa and Burundi in Group A of the U-20 AFCON, with venue based in Niamey.
“It is a tournament we are going to approach with all seriousness. This team has a huge burden on it because of the previous performances of Nigeria at U20 level. Nigeria has won the competition seven times and anything less than coming home with the trophy would always be seen as failure,”Aigbogun stated.
“Playing in the WAFU Cup tournament in Togo gave my players sneak preview of what things would look like in Niger Republic, and we learnt a lot from the defeat to Senegal in the final match.”
The competition will take place in Niger from February 2nd to February 17th.
All four semi finalists will qualify to fly Africa’s flag at the FIFA U20 World Cup in Poland, set for 23rd May – 15th June.
Poland, which co-hosted the 2012 European Championship with Ukraine, will host the 24 –nation finals in the cities of Lublin, Bielsko Biala, Tychy, Bydgoszcz, Gdynia and Lodz.
The draw Ceremony has already been set for 24th February at the Gdynia Sports Arena in the city of Gdynia.
