Coach Zubairu Yusuf has opened on his plan for the Nigeria U20 national team as he declared only the best will be selected after the team defeated their counterparts from Cote d’Ivoire in a friendly on Wednesday, Sports247 reports.
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In a exclusive with media Officer of the team in Abidjan after their impressive 2-0 over the Junior Elephants in the first leg of the double header, coach Zubairu Yusuf bear his mind on the plans for the team as they Intensify their preparations ahead of the 2025 U20 AFCON which will serve as qualifier for the 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup.
Here is the uncut version of the interview shared with Sports247 . Enjoy
MATCH ASSESSMENT
“My reaction to today’s game wouldn’t be that important as it is at this level – in 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. 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.
EXPECTATION OF NEW PLAYERS
“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 planning to go on a week break, so from there, when we regroup, that’s when we start expecting the foreign based players to come.”
ON FRIDAY’S SECOND LEG
“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.” Zubairu concludes.
