Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles’ coach, Aliyu Zubairu says a number of lessons were learnt from his side’s build-up friendly with Egypt and assured that all the observations will be used in preparing them for the impending African U20 Cup of Nations.
Sports247 reports that, with the competition billed to begin on Sunday and Nigeria scheduled to play their first game of the campaign against Tunisia on Wednesday, Zubairu is picking positives from Monday’s friendly and he is quite enthusiastic that his wards are ready for the task ahead.
However, Zubairu, who is also the handler of Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side, El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri, downplayed any form of emphasis of the 2-1 scoreline achieved by the Flying Eagles in Monday’s game, saying instead that the focus should be on the tactics employed and run of play.
Zubairu pointed out, “Attaching too much importance to this victory is unlike me. It was only for evaluation. So, we were able to evaluate the team … as we saw the negatives and the positives in our run of play.
“The positives will serve as motivation psychologically for the team, while the negatives are things we have to work on and ensure that we correct all our deficiencies. That’s what this match was meant for.”
The soft-spoken tactician then admitted that he was happy with the performance of his players, as they were able to replicate many of the tactics they worked on during various training sessions before leaving Nigeria and at their ongoing pre-championship camp in Egypt.
He added, “The boys were very, very good in this match, particularly in terms of their attitude and tactical play, which we have been working on.
“We want to ensure we maintain a situation whereby we create opportunities when we play. We also want to ensure that, anytime the opponent have the ball, we don’t allow them to play. That’s what we have been practising and I was happy when I saw them display it.”
He concluded by noting that being able to outwit the Egyptians during Monday’s friendly has given him a better view of how to go about next Wednesday’s clash with another North African side, Tunisia, as the Nigerian squad goes in search of a ticket to the next FIFA U20 World Cup.
“It was very, very encouraging; because we denied the Egyptians access to the ball. Anytime they had the ball, we were on them. The intensity we used in getting the ball back was encouraging.
When we then had the ball, we opened it up and played at our pace. That was the most encouraging thing about this match,” Zubairu recalled with glee.
