Nigeria’s Flying Eagles have promised to make up for an opening day loss to Mali to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2013 AYC.
Defending champions Nigeria failed to put away countless chances to allow Mali run away with a lone goal victory on Sunday in Oran.
Gabon and DR Congo played out a 0-0 draw in the second game in Group B to keep this section very much wide open. The Flying Eagles have said they will now get their title defence back on track with victories over Gabon tomorrow night and then at the weekend against DR Congo.
“We will do a lot better in our next game against Gabon on Wednesday,” vowed skipper Abduljaleel Ajagun, who was in the team who fell 1-0 to Cameroon in a group game at the last tournament in South Africa.
“The early goal Mali scored set us back and we were just too much in a hurry to equalise.
“We now know what we have to do on Wednesday.”
Lobi Stars midfielder Moses Orkuma said they will ensure they do not throw away begging chances again as they did against the Junior Eagles of Mali. “We have realised our mistakes and we are now condemned to win our next two matches, which should qualify us to the World Cup,” said Orkuma.
“We created over 30 chances against Mali but could not put the ball in the net. They got one chance and they scored.
“It was disappointing to lose but it’s not over till it’s over.”
Orkuma will further predict a successful title defence for the Flying Eagles in Algeria.
“We may now be struggling with qualification to the next stage of the competition, but I believe we will go on to retain our trophy,” he said.
The Flying Eagles will resume training on Monday night after the decisive game against Gabon.
Kick-off for this game is 8.30pm and so the Nigeria U20 will also commence training about the same time
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