Head coach of Nigeria’s U-17 team, Emmanuel Amuneke, expects his players to defeat their Zambian counterparts and ensure qualification for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Chile later this year when both sides meet on Saturday at the ongoing CAF U-17 Championship, taking place in Niger.
A semifinal ticket is all the Golden Eaglets require to qualify for
October’s World Cup, and in a report posted on the official site of the Nigerian FA, the 1994 African Footballer of the Year said expressed optimism that his boys would do everything to gain a semi final berth at Niger 2015.
“Our expectations (against Zambia) is to win and secure our ticket for the World Cup in Chile,” the former Barcelona winger told thenff.com.
“We have to psyche up ourselves and forget about the draw against Guinea, we have to be optimistic to play much better.”
Amuneke was of the view that the Golden Eaglets could play much better since the decider against Zambia would be played on the artificial turf of the Stade Municipal in Niamey.
“What we are doing is to lift their spirit and not being hard on them due to the last game and I want to believe they would be ready to play their usual game,” he added.
Since the hard earned 1-1 draw against Guinea, the coaching crew has impressed it upon the players the magnitude of the match against Zambia on Saturday.
“We are hopeful of a better performance against Zambia,” he said. “We are going to evaluate the players and gauge their state of mind after our last training session and we can be able to know those who will be ready to go into battle against Zambia.”
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