Flying Eagles Head Coach Aliyu Zubairu has emphasized his priority of building a balanced team ahead of the U20 AFCON, after their 2-0 win over Ivory Coast’s Young Elephants on Wednesday.
The Flying Eagles secured victory courtesy of goals from captain Daniel Bameyi and Divine Oliseh, giving them an edge before the two teams meet again in a second friendly match on Friday.
However, speaking after the friendly win, Aliyu Zubairu remained unfazed by the result, asserting that the team is still in the process of building with the aim of ensuring they are fully prepared to compete at the U20 AFCON.
“My reaction to today’s game wouldn’t be that important as it is at this level in as much as much as we are still in a building process. We came here for the friendly match to be able to know the level at which some of the old players that went to WAFU-B are and the new ones that want to join us,” he said.
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Aliyu Zubairu stressed the importance of meeting the team’s standards, indicating that underperforming players may be replaced: “If any of those that went to WAFU-B can’t meet up with the standard we are looking for, he will be replaced, and so are the new ones if you can’t fit in. We still have to keep setting until we get a balanced team for the U20.”
The coach revealed that the team is expecting several foreign-based players to join the squad, which will enhance their preparations for the U20 AFCON. “We are expecting a lot of players, particularly those who have taken their careers abroad, that are eligible. We are expecting a reasonable number of them that will join us as soon as we go back to Nigeria.”
“We are still going to approach Friday’s match with seriousness because we adopted a tactic that we try to look if It’s going to work during the AFCON proper – so we are going to go for another tactics to see so that we can have a plan A and B – should in case plan A fail us as a team so we can quickly switch to plan B,” the head coach added.
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