The youth national team, Flying Eagles will now travel out to Niamey, Niger Republic on Thursday, and arrive some 72 hours ahead of the start of the African U-20 Cup of Nations on Saturday.
This means the team’s departure to the U-20 AFCON venue is coming two days after their initial plan to hit the landlocked Francophone nation on Tuesday, but officials have ruled out any setbacks for the squad.
Nigeria’s first opponent at Niger 2019 are Burundi’s Junior Itamba, who are reputed as a toughened bunch that went through three rounds of qualifiers to land in Niamey.
They trounced Ethiopia 3-0 on aggregate, shot past Sudan 3-1 after both legs and then side-tracked Zambia by the same margin.
However, Flying Eagles’ team administrator, Aliyu Ibrahim Lawal doused any worries when he confirmed that the delegation will now depart for Niamey on the morning of Thursday, 31st January.
The Flying Eagles skipped Guinea Bissau 3-2 on aggregate before mauling Mauritania 6-1 on aggregate to qualify.
Thier second opponents in Niger, South Africa got 4-1 over Mozambique before defeating Malawi 2-0 on aggregate to get a place at the finals.
Hosts Niger Republic qualified automatically but were at the WAFU U20 Tournament in Lome last month, where they battled to a scoreless draw with the Flying Eagles in a group phase encounter.
