Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles’ coach, Aliyu Zubairu has sent out a passionate appeal for prayers from all Nigerians ahead of his side’s clash with Morocco at this year’s African U20 Cup of Nations in Egypt.
Sports247 reports that Nigeria and Morocco will lock horns in a fixture that would potentially determine their group’s winner, as both nations won their opening games on Thursday and would now seek to cancel each other out on Sunday.
Read Also:Chibuike Nwaiwu Makes History: Nigerian Midfielder Lifts Austrian Cup with Wolfsberger AC
Heading into the mouth-watering encounter, Morocco top the group on goals-for, having floored Kenya 3-2, while Zubairu’s team could only muster a slim 1-0 win against Tunisia on the same day in Cairo.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the next stage of the competition, but victory for either side on Sunday would put them one step ahead of the others and edging closer to the junior AFCON trophy plus a ticket to the FIFA U20 World Cup.
With that in mind, Zubairu admitted it is a match he will aim to win, but also reassured all Nigerians that Sunday’s victory over Tunisia boosted the confidence of his players aheas of their second game in the championship, which is being histed by Egypt after the initial hosts, Cote d’Ivoire pulled out dramatically.
Zubairu, who is also the technical adviser at El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), also admitted that the clash with Tunisia was dicey for his wards, knowing fully that they dared not slip up in their first match of the high-profile competition, which also serves as qualifiers for the U20 Mundial in Chile.
He pointed out, “Normally, first matches in a competition like this are always very, very difficult and hard. That’s why we have to thank God that we were able to scale through with the three points. That’s the most important thing from this game, and it will give us some level of confidence for our next match.”
Though he acknowledged that Thursday’s victory was a huge morale booster for his team ahead of Sunday’s potentially explosive clash with Morocco, Zubairu still harped on the need for Nigerians to support his side with prayers and every other means possible to ensure they carry the day against the rampaging North Africans, whose cadet team recently won the continent’s under-17 championship.
“The boys will play the next match with some degree of confidence, considering the fact that we got the three maximum points in this match. All we want is for Nigerians to continue to be with the team and give us their support. We also really need their prayers … as they have been doing as usual. We promise that we are not going to let them down,” Zubairu pledged with affirmation in his voice.
