National Under-20 coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, has revealed why his wards would need to play more tough opponents before Sunday’s epic battle in the first leg of their final Under-20 African Youth Championship qualifier against the host, Sudan. The team recently subdued City Strikers 2-1 to make good impression in their quest to conquer the continent again and the coach was satisfied with the quality of soccer artistry displayed by his team.
“The boys played their hearts out to fight for permanent shirts in the team. We used the match to build the strength of the team. We are using the friendly games to prepare our players psychologically and mentally, that is why we need more grade ‘A’ friendly matches for the team,” he said.
Amuneke said that the Sudanese players may be bigger and stronger than his boys and he did not want to entertain any excuses for poor outing as he intensified efforts to make the team the best ever in history.
Nigeria has been dominating African youth football for a long time and the coach is confident that his boys would scale the big hurdles in Sudan.
“We have the players and we need to prepare very well since we are not sure of what we may encounter in Omdurman, Sudan. It is going to be one of the toughest duels so far. It is no child’s play. It is going to be an interesting encounter and we must be perfectly ready,” he said.
