President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Aminu Maigari, has tasked the Flying Eagles to win Sunday’s African Youth Championship qualifier in Tanzania.
Maigari told the Nigeria’s U-20 squad through team secretary, Ibrahim Auwal Aliyu, that he had total confidence in the team and as such he expected them to win in Dar-es-Salaam.
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 before they boarded their flight to Tanzania.
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 yesterday morning and were received by officials of the Nigerian High Commission as well as Tanzania Football Federation (TFF).
They were booked into three-star Sapphire Court Hotel in downtown Dar-es-Salaam and will train by match time, which is 4 pm local time and 2 pm Nigerian 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 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 MudhathirYahya, who both feature for newly crowned Azam FC – the Chelsea of Tanzania – as they are owned by the country’s richest man.