Flying Eagles target another win against Tanzania

Flying Eagles players have said they hope to complete a home and away win over the Ngorongoro Heroes of Tanzania on Saturday in Kaduna to advance to the third round of the 2015 African Youth Championship qualifiers.

The Nigeria U20s won the first leg 2-0 in Dar es Salaam about a fortnight ago.

“We are not relaxing on the result from the first match. For us, Saturday’s match is a different game altogether and we want to win it,” said striker Alhassan Ibrahim aka Mu-azam.

“We respect the Tanzanians, but we are a better team and we will prove this on Saturday.”

Mustapha Abdullahi added: “It’s an important game and we will fight to win it.

“We will not take anything for granted.”

In 2012, Nigeria also eliminated Tanzania from the African Youth Championship.

The Flying Eagles won 2-1 in Dar es Salaam before they again won 2-0 in Ilorin.

The Flying Eagles have endured several injury problems from the first leg, but all squad players including Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi and Izu Omego have since bounced back to full fitness.

After training twice on Monday, the Flying Eagles will now train only once leading up to the match on Saturday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium.

Kick-off time is 4pm.

Granada yet to confirm Isaac Success release

Spanish La Liga club Granada are yet to confirm when they will release striker Isaac Success for a training camp ahead of next month’s AYC qualifier.

“We are still waiting a confirmation from Granada for the player,” said team secretary Aliyu Auwal Ibrahim.

Also, there has been no feedback on the availability of goalkeeper Dele Alampasu, who has been on trials at Belgian club Genk.

Unconfirmed reports had suggested the Abuja College goalkeeper may have suffered a long-term injury while on trials in Belgium.

The Flying Eagles rounded up their training for Wednesday’s friendly against their Moroccan counterparts Tuesday morning.

Set plays were emphasised during the one and a half hour workout on a warm and sunny day.

Ifeanyi Matthew, Musa Yahaya and Alhassan Ibrahim aka ‘Mu-azam’ proved to be great free kick specialists as they bent their kicks past goalkeeper Emeka Nwabulu.

‘Mu-azam’ will win a $100 bet with assistant coach Nduka Ugbade, when he curled his effort round a packed defensive wall for his second goal in the interesting exercise.

Morocco U20s will line up a wholly home-based side with several players from last year’s African U17 team promoted, same as the current Flying Eagles.

The Flying Eagles will depart their training base outside Casablanca immediately after breakfast on Wednesday for Rabat, where the match will be played.

The match will kick off at 4pm local time, which is same time with Nigeria.