Today, Nigeria’s bid for an eighth African U-20 Nations Cup title will face a major challenge when the Flying Eagles meet The Gambia team in a Semi-final clash.
Nigeria had earlier gotten an unconvincing 1-0 defeat of Uganda in the quarterfinals after Group A victories over Mozambique (2-0) and Egypt (1-0) plus a 0-1 defeat by Senegal in their first game of the competition.
Meanwhile, Gambia and Senegal are the only teams that have not been defeated so far in the tournament.
To qualify for the Semi-final tie, Gambia, defeated Tunisia I-0, Zambia (2-0) and Benin Republic 1-0 in Group C before utterly thrashing South Sudan 5-0 in the quarterfinal.
Flying Eagles Coach, Ladan Bosso, is quoted to have said he knows how to neutralise everything the Gambians would throw at them.
According to Bosso, “previous results will not determine what happens in our semi-final match against The Gambia.
They have been in great form and my boys have also recovered well and are in their elements. It will be a great match, but I believe in my team and we are confident of playing in the Final on Saturday.”
Coach Bosso told CAF media, yesterday: “I’m happy to be back in Cairo once again after we played the last two matches in Ismailia. Tomorrow we will face The Gambia, who are a strong team and we respect them well but we will work to present a good level to win.
“We lost the first match and we have not lost any match since then.”
The Flying Eagles last won the tournament in 2015 in Senegal and Bosso wants to replicate that feat and secure their eighth continental crown.
“We will face a team that has not been defeated in the tournament,” Bosso added.
“The most important thing for us in the tournament is that we qualified for the World Cup. Now we will fight to win the title.”
