Manu: I will be disappointed not to beat Morocco

Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba has said he will be “highly disappointed” were his team not to beat Morocco in Casablanca in a second friendly on Friday.

Both teams played out a 2-2 draw in the first match played in Rabat on Wednesday.

They are both preparing for 2015 African Youth Championship qualifiers early next month.

“I will be highly disappointed if we didn’t win the second match as this will help team confidence,” said Manu.

“This is a team who want to win always and so I expect us to improve on what we did on Wednesday by converting our chances and correct our mistakes.

“We need to improve on our goal scoring and also work on our defence.

“We are also yet to hit peak form because most of these players have not been in action for some time now.”

The Flying Eagles coach added: “Overall it was not a bad match being our first top friendly since we assembled this team.

“Some of the players lacked confidence and at this level we have to dominate.

“What gave me the biggest satisfaction was that we created so many chances and had we buried them, we would have been talking a different story now.

“It was most helpful for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to have organised these matches for us and I believe if we could get another two such games, we would be a lot more stable as a team.”

The U17 World Cup-winning coach will also praise the character of the Junior Atlas Lions of Morocco.

“They showed great character by coming back twice against us. They passed the ball very well and did not hold on to it for too long,” he said.

“This is a team who will go places going by what we saw.”

The second friendly will now be played by 4pm local time, which is same time with Nigeria, in Casablanca.

Meanwhile, all the foreign-based call-ups bar Isaac Success and Dele Alampasu have joined the rest of the squad left behind in Abuja.

The players are skipper Musa Muhammed, Kelechi Iheanacho, Chidiebere Nwakali and Chidera Eze.

Hosts Morocco peg back Flying Eagles

Hosts Morocco forced Nigeria’s Flying Eagles to a 2-2 draw in a friendly at the National Sports Centre in Rabat in a friendly on Wednesday.

The Flying Eagles twice led through Alhassan Ibrahim aka Mu-azam in the second half, before skipper Arjoune Omar drew the home team level in stoppage time.

The Flying Eagles dominated the first half even after the hosts settled quicker than them.

After just four minutes Flying Eagles goalkeeper Emeka Nwabulu was forced to make a save off a free kick.

Ifeanyi Matthew then had several chances to put Nigeria in front but his shots either were too weak or missed target within the first 18 minutes.

Taiwo Awoniyi then rounded up the Morocco goalkeeper in the 14th minute but somehow the opposing defence cleared to safety.
Muazam’s effort was then cleared off the goalline in the 28th minute and five minutes later, the striker’s shot missed by a whisker.
In first half stoppage time, Awoniyi blew away a glit-edged chance as the Flying Eagles bossed the game.

Abdullahi Alfa ought to have opened scoring for Nigeria five minutes after the break but he chose to sky his shot wide off target when he was left all alone with goalkeeper Majid Aymane.

Muazam finally broke the deadlock after 64 minutes with a gentle tap in from close range, but almost immediately Morocco drew level when skipper Wilfred Ndidi put a low cross into his own net.

Nwabulu made a big save for Nigeria in the 74th minute and then both Muazam and Matthew came close to regaining the Eagles lead.

Muazam then scored his brace in the 81st minute, before skipper Omar salvage a result for the Junior Lion Atlas in stoppage time with a near post header.