When the Flying Eagles of Nigeria play Uganda in the quarterfinals of the TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, coach Ladan Bosso hopes to secure a spot in the World Cup.
The record champions, who were eliminated from the previous competition in Mauritania, are back in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
With their back-to-back victories in the group stage, Nigeria, which placed second in Group A behind Senegal, will be very confident going into Thursday’s showdown.
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“We all know that Nigeria has qualified to the quarter-final stage and knowing fully that we have an objective of coming out of this place and the least task ahead of us is to pick one of the slots to the FIFA U-20 World Cup,” said coach Ladan Bosso.
“We’re almost there but it is not yet sealed. We believe and hope that at the end of the regulation time tomorrow we should be celebrating.”
The seasoned Bosso predicts that the Flying Eagles won’t undervalue the Hippos, who made it to the final in their first game two years ago.
“The Ugandan team is equally qualified and they’re our next opponents and we cannot underrate any team,” Ladan Bosso said.
“The knockout stage if you don’t squeeze through it’s as if you didn’t qualify so we will do all we can do to make sure we go through to the World Cup.
“We have our strategy and we hope our plan will work accordingly.”
Chijioke Aniagboso, the Flying Eagles’ goalkeeper, accompanied the team’s manager during the pre-game press conference on Thursday.
In order to defeat the Ugandan hippos, according to the Giant Brillars FC keeper, they must work even harder.
“We will continue from where we stopped improving our game but we’re happy to get to this stage,” Chijioke said.
“We need to work so much harder than how we started like my coach said losing this match is like not even qualifying at all so I think we’re prepared with the coaches and by god grace we will go through.
“We are in a confident mood because we started this and we have to end it. There’s no feeling or anything. Our job is to go to the field and up our game and book our ticket.”