WAFU B: F/Eagles rally for crucial Ivory Coast clash

The Nigeria Flying Eagles are determined to secure a win against Ivory Coast in their second Group A match of the 2024 WAFU Zone B U-20 Championship at the Municipal Stadium, Lome, on Thursday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The team’s media officer, Sharif Abdullah, said the players have resolved to approach the game all guns blazing to achieve the desired result in a meeting at the instance of the skipper, Daniel Bameyi, on Monday.

After losing 1-0 to Burkina Faso in the first match, the Flying Eagles are condemned to beat the young Elephants in order to rekindle their title defence and qualification for next year’s U-20 Men’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Abdullah said the players are in high spirits and beaming with confidence, looking to once again overcome the challenge of storming back into contention after losing their opening match in a major international championship.

He said, “The spirit in the camp is extremely high; the boys know what is at stake is either a win or nothing. So, there are a lot of motivations. They have had a meeting among themselves, talking about how to draw inspiration from the defeat in the hands of Burkina Faso.

”They know what is at stake and are at the moment trying to do everything possible. The meeting with the team’s captain was about drawing inspiration from the previous occasions they overcame the setback.

“We’ve had the same setback in Egypt, and at the end of the day we bounced back and qualified for the World Cup in Argentina. It happened to us during the Africa Games, where we lost the first game to Senegal and we bounced back against Uganda. It has happened not once, not twice, so it is left for us to draw some inspiration.

“This is what they discussed under the leadership of the team’s captain, Daniel Bameyi. The spirit is very high, and of course these boys want to, by all means, get the desired result against their Ivorian counterparts.”

The team’s head coach, Aliyu Zubairu, had blamed the loss to Burkina Faso on the physicality of the opponents that adversely affected their game plan. The scenario will be different against the young Elephants known for their fast and gritty approaches to matches.

The WAFU B U-20 Championship serves as the qualification for the 2025 Africa U20 Cup of Nations, with only the finalists going through.

This 2025 U20 AFCON will also serve as the African qualifiers for the 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile, where the four semi-finalists will qualify automatically.