U-20 AFCON: No Need To Fault Flying Eagles, World Cup Ticket Was Primary Objective- Manu Garba

Former Nigeria U-17 head coach, Manu Garba has backed the Flying Eagles despite their semi-final loss to Gambia at the ongoing U-20 AFCON in Egypt.

The Flying Eagles lost out on the final to Gambia in the semi-final through an early goal having dominated most of the game at the Cairo International Stadium on Monday evening.

Despite the 1-0 defeat, the coach who won the U-20 AFCON with the Flying Eagles in 2015 stated that the team’s objectives going into the tournament had been achieved.

“The primary objective of the team has been achieved, which is to qualify for the World Cup,” Manu Garba said.

The Flying Eagles qualified for the forthcoming FIFA U20 World Cup which is scheduled to be held in Indonesia by May after defeating Uganda 1-0 in the quarter-finals last Friday.

He also urged Nigerians to back the team ahead of their third place match with Tunisia.

“So we need to remain behind the team as they can try to win the third-place match even if they didn’t win, the team has made it to the World Cup and the event is in May, which they have enough time to make sure they improve on the performances in the areas that need to be improved and then they have time to build the team in other places before the World Cup.

“So for me, people should be behind the team and shouldn’t castigate any of the players or technical crew members because they have all done well in qualifying for the World Cup because it’s African football and all other teams qualified to get to the AFCON,” he added.

Ahead of the U20 AFCON in Egypt, the Flying Eagles played some friendlies in Nigeria and played two more games with amateur teams in Morocco enroute to Egypt.

“And for them to emerge as one of the favorite teams to get to the World Cup I think they have done extremely well to make it to the World Cup looking at our preparations too.”

Ladan Bosso’s men will lock horns with the young carthage eagles of Tunisia at the Cairo International Stadium on Friday afternoon in a bronze medal match.