Abuja – Emmanuel Amuneke, Flying Eagles’ Head Coach, on Friday in Abuja said his team had been training very hard for their second leg match against their Burundian counterparts.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the national under-20 male football team defeated their Burundian counterparts 1-0 in the first leg match played in Bujumbura last Saturday.
The return leg of the fixture is scheduled for June 11 at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar.
The fixture is the second round of qualifiers for the 2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations scheduled for Zambia.
“We travelled to Burundi and we were able to achieve our objective, which is winning there, and now the objective for the second leg is to see how we will wrap up the game.
“But if we are opportuned to have some friendly games before June 11, that will be a good development.
“Friendly matches help sports men’s development. They aid in building their confidence,” Amuneke said.
He however pointed out that since football is a sport where you can not outrightly predict, he and his colleagues in the team’s technical crew would continue to do their best.
“I think the most important thing as a team, and also as a group, is to continue to lay emphasis on how we can develop ourselves, to continue to see how we can grow as a team and see how we can be much stronger collectively.
“This is what we’ve tried to transmit to the players and hopefully they will catch up with it,” the coach said.
NAN reports that Burundi had walked over DR Congo in the first round of the qualifiers, while Nigeria drew bye.
Winners of the fixture on aggregate will face Sudan in the final qualifying round to book a place in the competition.
Nigeria are the defending champions of the competition, having won the title in 2015 at Senegal.(NAN)