Nigeria’s under-20 national team, Flying Eagles’ captain, Daniel Bameyi has blown the lid off all factors that helped his side defeat Ghana’s Black Satellites on Wednesday.
A brace from Beyond Limit Football Academy of Ikenne striker, Arieri Kparobo helped Nigeria get a a 2-1 win in Lome, Togo and retainWAFU B trophy won two years ago in Niamey, Niger Republic.
Speaking exclusively to sports247.ng after helping Nigeria snatch bragging rights in the latest ‘Jollof Rice Battle’ between both anglophone West African rivals, Bameyi revealed that everyone in the squad made it happen.
He also admitted that qualifying for the African U20 Cup of Nations and winning the WAFU B qualifying competition was a huge achievement for him and his colleagues, especially as they earlier lost their first match in Lome.
Bameyi added, “It means a lot to us. When we talk about football, we know what it means to Nigerians. That’s why we are very happy to be champions of this competition.
“We thank God Almighty, we thank Nigerians, we thank Nigeria Football Federation. To everybody, we just say thank you for helping us get what we now have.
“I will also like to say thanks to our coach, because he did a good job. He made us understand that it was a very important game.”
Bameyi then spoke about how he and his colleagues played their own role towards the regional conquest, as he recounted how they psyched themselves up in order to carry the day.
“We as players knew it was a very important game. We have this mentality of never saying never, and we put our hearts into it.
“We told ourselves that we wanted to take the trophy back to Nigeria, and we are happy that we did it. But, it was not easy, seriously.
“After losing our first game, we had a meeting together. My colleagues, we all talked among ourselves. The coaches also spoke to us.
“That is why I said we have to give a very big thank you to the coach, because he did a lot. In fact, all the coaches did a lot.
“They made us understand that, even after we lost the first match, we could still qualify and even win the cup,” the articulate skipper recalled.
He concluded with a revelation of the way he and his colleagues built their winning mentality heading into Wednesday’s final.
“We had to psyche ourselves, and we told ourselves that we could not stay down. There was no way we could remain down there because we are champions of Africa.
“So, we had to get up and do the needful. We took every game one step at a time. From the Cote d’Ivoire game to the Niger game and up to the final.
“We knew that we could still up our game, and that’s what we did to ensure we eventually beat Ghana in this final,” Bameyi disclosed.
