The Flying Eagles will not take Uganda lightly in today’s U20 AFCON quarterfinal clash as they aim to qualify for the U20 World Cup, according to coach Ladan Bosso.
Nigeria battle Uganda today by 6pm at the Suez Canal Stadium in Ismailia with the winners qualifying for this year’s U20 FIFA World Cup in Indonesia in May.
Two years ago, the Hippos of Uganda went all the way to the U20 AFCON final on only their debut and they now come face-to-face with seven-time champions Nigeria.
“The Ugandan team are equally qualified and they’re our next opponents and we cannot underrate any team,” Bosso assured.
“We all know that Nigeria has qualified to the quarter-final stage and knowing fully that we have an objective of coming out of this place and the least task ahead of us is to pick one of the slots to the FIFA U20 World Cup.
“We’re almost there but it is not yet sealed. We believe and hope that at the end of the regulation time tomorrow we should be celebrating.”
Goalkeeper Chijioke Aniagboso, who has taken over as the Flying Eagles No 1, said the team will step up their game to go through to the semifinal.
“The knockout stage if you don’t squeeze through it’s as if you didn’t qualify so we will do all we can do to make sure we go through to the World Cup,” he said.
“We will continue from where we stopped improving our game but we’re happy to get to this stage.
“We need to work so much harder than how we started like my coach said losing this match is like not even qualifying at all so I think we’re prepared with the coaches and by god grace we will go through.
“We are in a confident mood because we started this and we have to end it. There’s no feeling or anything. Our job is to go to the field and up our game and book our ticket.”
