South Africa head coach Thabo Senong is expecting a difficult match against Nigeria in their third place match at the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday, but says they will do everything in their power to come out with a positive result against the Flying Eagles, reports Completesports.com.
The Amajita suffered a 1-0 defeat to Senegal in their semi-final fixture at the Seyni Kountche Stadium on Wednesday , following an unfortunate own-goal which came off defender Givemore Khupe in the 73rd minute.
The South Africans qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland after finishing in the top four of this year’s biennial continental youth tournament.
Both teams battled to a goalless draw when they met in the group stage two weeks ago with the Flying Eagles finding it difficult to break down a resolute Amajita defence.
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However, Senong insists his wards have what it takes to beat the Flying Eagles this time around and end the competition on a high.
“We played to a 0-0 draw the last time we played Nigeria in our Group A encounter,” Senong told reporters.
“Every game we participate in we always approach it with the intent of winning it. The same attitude will be applied in our 3rd place play-off match against Nigeria.”
By Adeboye Amosu
6 Comments
I bet you do fancy your chances against a Nigerian side that are not firing in attack.
Aside bragging right this game is inconsequential i bet a lot of fans are careless about the result of this losers game because the minimum expectations of the average Nigerian fan in competition within the continent is the trophy,anything less is aptly seen as failure.
However,i’m wishing the flying eagles victory at least 3rd position is better than 4th.
God bless Nigeria.
Thank you greenturf.
Expecting anything less than the trophy in any African football competition is a pathetic lack of faith in our credibility as a football nation.
Any coach with less than the trophy as a target does not deserve our full support.
The coach has been saying it even before they commencement if the competition that world cup was his target. Others are secondary to him. Instead his target to be trophy. May be the guy can’t can’t reason fast that the trophy come with ticket for world cup.
Not his fault. If Nigeria has gone to this competition with right players he wouldn’t have been saying this trash. This coming under 20 world cup may be the worst performance if the players are not overhauled and get very good strikers. Is Osimen and Nwakali above 20 ?
Osimhen and Nwakali are full internationals so no need for them playing at a lower level which the flying eagles is compared to the super eagles rather new players should be scouted so we can have more options to choose from in the future.
They are both already 20 and may not be eligible