Amuneke hails Eaglets after 3-2 win against Egypt

Coach Emmanuel Amuneke has nothing but praises for the Golden Eaglets

following a brave 3-2 comeback win against Egypt in the first of their double header international friendly match against Egypt at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna on Wednesday.

The visitors scored two first half goals through Mahmoud Mahbob and Walid Attid but were overhauled by Nigeria courtesy goals by Samuel Chukwueze, Kelechi Nwakali and Sunday Alimi.

” Sincerely, I thank the players for their courage to win this match despite the fact that they conceded two early goals,” Amuneke said.”

Of course, there were errors because this was the first time we were playing on a natural pitch since we had long been training on artificial surface.

“But overall, I praise them and we are going to work better for the next game on Friday,” he added.

It was indeed a hard fought win for the Golden Eaglets as the Egyptians went into the lead just six minutes into the game following a loss of concentration at the Nigeria’s end.

Defender Anas Mohammed playing on the right full back, failed to clear a ball and allowed Egypt’s Mohammed Hamdy to float a ball for Mahbob to effortlessly guide the ball into the net. Five minutes later, the
Eaglets were punished yet again in a similar circumstance when another ball was floated into the box for unmarked Walid Attid to nod the ball into an empty net beyond a badly positioned goalkeeper Amos Benjamin,

But Golden Eaglets fought back gamely and in the 27th minute, Samuel Chukwueze pulled a goal back when he collected a through ball from Suleiman Abdullahi and ghosted past his marker before driving the ball
beyond the reach of Egypt’s goalkeeper Mahmoud Gad.

Chukwueze’s goal coincided with the arrival of His Excellency,Ambassador Nuhu Bajoga, Kaduna State’s Deputy Governor and other top government officials as the Golden Eaglets began their revival towards
the end of the first half.

Afterwards, Nigeria made changes in the second stanza as Alimi Sunday came in for injured Nuru Umar as well as Ebere Osinachi for Suleiman Abdullahi and that would prove to be inspired changes as the Eaglets ceased the momentum.

Egypt conceded a penalty after new comer Osinachi was fouled in the box and Nwakali scored the resultant kick
in the 68th minute.

Sunday, a former National Under-13 player would cap his debut with the Golden Eaglets when he grabbed the winning goal in the 86th minute much to the delight of the impressive spectators at the stadium.

The two teams would return to the same venue on Friday for the second match as they both continue their build up towards the 2015 CAN Under-17 qualifiers in July.

Golden Eaglets versus Egypt

B. Amos-B. Ayodeji, L.Halilu, K.Gbadamosi,A.Mohammed
J.Ipalibo(H.Okebugwu),K.Nwakali,S.Abdullahi,N.Umar(T.Sunday),
M.Chinedu(C.Eugene),S.Chukwueze

Golden Eaglets screening continues

Fresh from their near-successful campaign at the WAFU B Tournament in Togo, Golden Eaglets’ technical crew would continue screening of new players at the NFF/FIFA Goal Project Pitch in Abuja.

‘Old boys’ who won bronze medal at the tournament in Togo, are expected to resume training in due course while new players desirous to be part of the team would have the chance to undergo the rigours of screening starting from Thursday, May 1, 2014.

On the last count, about 4,000 players have gone through the screening and the exercise was barely two weeks before the team travelled to Togo for the tournament where they finished third behind Benin and Mali.

But officials said it was imperative to look at fresh talents in order to strengthen the team ahead of greater challenges.

Head Coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, said the tournament in Togo gave the coaching crew the ample opportunity to gauge players’ response to competition as well as their general attitude and conduct.

The former Nigerian international said efforts would be geared towards getting a pool of 50 talented players that would be registered for the qualifiers as well as the 2015 CAN Under-17 Championship in Niger.

“We would use the next two weeks to look at new players because we need to reinforce the team as it were,” Amuneke said.”Our objective is to have a pool of good players that we can draw from time to time because this is a long journey.”

The Golden Eaglets would begin their 2015 African Under-17 campaign in July and have been drawn bye into the second round to meet the winner of the first round clash between Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.