Flying Eagles tipped to win
by Humphrey Njoku 10 December 2012, 07:10
Plateau United coach, Patrick Mancha has said Flying Eagles are in fair group at the 2013 African Under20 Championship in Algeria.
Caf on Sunday in Cairo, Egypt pitched Nigeria in Group B together with Mali, DR Congo and Gabon.
Semifinalists of the biennial football showpiece will qualify automatically for the 2013 Fifa Under20 World Cup in Turkey.
Mancha said the coach John Obuh's team will blame themselves if they failed to pick qualification ticket from benign group.
"Superb draws. It's a good one and a big advantage to us.
"We have no reason not to qualify first from the group, we have the edge as our opponents don't appear to be our mates.
"But we must not underrate the opponents rather coach Obuh must shop for players who are ready to die defending the national colours.
"Obuh has a squad already but he must dig deep for fresh legs to strengthen and sharpen his attack," said the former Flying Eagles' player to supersport.com.
The former Nigerian cadet player said the team must be engaged in series of top grade matches to put them on strong footing towards defending the title.
"The team must play quality grade A friendlies not necessarily to win but to toughen the players the more for the challenges ahead. They should engaged themselves with teams way ahead of them.
"I'm confident they will qualify for the World Cup as well as win the African tourney," he said.
Group A has hosts, Algeria, Benin Republic, Ghana and Egypt.
