U-17 AYC: Eaglets, Tunisia Battle For Final’s Ticket

After bouncing back from their shock 0-1 loss to Cote d’Ivoire in their second group match to maul Congo 7-0 and advance to the semi final stage, Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets will engage their Tunisian counterparts in a battle for the final today.

The Eaglets, who might have instilled fear into opponents with their rampaging attacking game and goal haul at the on-going African Under 17 Championship in Morocco will have another opportunity to make a statement for themselves.

But all eyes, especially, Nigerians, are on the youngsters to really fulfill their potentials by going all the way to the title.

Tunisia, who will enjoy a kind of home comfort in Morocco will certainly want to frustrate the Nigerians and catch them off guard. They demonstrated their quality in the group stage by not losing a match, and would want to continue the run. However, with the form of the Eaglets, especially leading goal scorer, Isaac Success and prolific Iheanacho, who have scored a combined total of 10 goals in their three matches, the Tunisia defence and keeper will be in for a busy day this evening.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Coach of the Golden Eaglets, Nduka Ugbade, said yesterday that the team would play the semi-final encounter against their Tunisian foes with all the seriousness it deserved.

Ugbade told newsmen in Lagos that the Eaglets would guard against complacency and not make the kind of mistakes it made against Cote d’Ivoire.

“We went back to the drawing board to ascertain what went wrong in our match against Cote d’Ivoire.

“We were complacent against Cote d’Ivoire and that was why the game ended the way it did, against Tunisia we will play with all seriousness,’’ he said.

On the morale of the players, the assistant coach said that the players were in high spirits.

“After the shocking loss to Cote d’ Ivoire, Manu Garba spoke to the players and urged them to be focused.