Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Aminu Maigari has tasked the Flying Eagles to win Sunday’s African Youth Championship qualifier in Tanzania.
Maigari told the Nigeria U20 through team secretary Ibrahim Auwal Aliyu he has total confidence on the team and as such he expects them to win in Dar es Salaam.
“We have total confidence in the Flying Eagles and so we expect victory on Sunday so that the return leg in Nigeria will just be a mere formality,” Maigari urged.
Two years ago, the Flying Eagles beat the Ngorongoro Heroes 2-1 in Dar es Salaam and wrapped up their qualification to the next round with a 2-0 win in Ilorin two weeks later.
A good Nigerian, Evaristus Ekwem, paid for the lunch of the Flying Eagles at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos on Wednesday.
Ekwem simply said he is a priest and a writer and was on his way to Kenya for a conference.
The Flying Eagles landed in the port city of Dar es Salaam early Thursday morning and were received by officials of the Nigeria embassy as well as Tanzania Football Federation.
They are booked into three-star Sapphire Court Hotel in downtown Dar es Salaam and will train by match time, which is 4pm local time and 2pmNigerian time on Sunday.
The Somalia basketball team, who are featuring in an East and Central African championship, are also putting up at the same hotel.
Hosts Tanzania are leaving nothing to chance to upset their more illustrious foes on Sunday at the 60,000-capacity National Stadium.
Coach John Simkoko has beefed up his squad with Mbeya City striker Saad Kipanga.
Kipanga was in fine form to help Mbeya City finish third in their debut season in the Tanzanian top flight and has now been linked with a big move to Simba SC.
The Ngonrongoro Heroes are desperate for firepower after they failed to score both at home and away in the previous qualifier against neigbours Kenya.
The team’s top strikers are Kevin Friday and Mudhathir Yahya, who both feature for newly crowned Azam FC – the Chelsea of Tanzania as they are owned by the country’s richest man).
