Olympic Eagles Battle Guinea For Paris 2024 Ticket

Coach of Nigeria’s U-23 men’s football team, Salisu Yusuf, said his Olympic Eagles are up to the task of grabbing one of the tickets to this year’sUu-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco when they take on Guinea in their final qualifying first leg fixture. at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.

In preparation for Wednesday’s clash by 4 pm (Nigerian Time), U-23 Eagles Head Coach, Salisu Yusuf, invited overseas and home-based players to their Abuja camp and hopes they are well tuned for the Guineans.

“I am satisfied that we have been able to work hard these past days and are now set for action,” coach Yusuf said. “The players know that reaching the Africa Cup of Nations presents them a tremendous opportunity to fight hard for a ticket to the Olympics, which is a global tournament.”

“We have invited a number of players from overseas that we believe can help us stake a very strong claim to the ticket, and we will be aiming for a good win on Wednesday. The second leg is on neutral ground, but we don’t want to entertain that in our minds.”

“We have the objective of working assiduously to wrap up things in this first leg,” coach Yusuf added.

Guinea’s U-23 squad had their official training at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium on Saturday evening, hours before the Olympic Eagles took to the same pitch for their final workout ahead of the encounter.

The Olympic Eagles of Nigeria’s last participation at the men’s football event was at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 edition, where the U-23 Eagles won the bronze medal.

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The 1996 Gold and 2008 Bronze medalists missed the 2020 edition in Japan and hope to return to the fray at the Paris 2024 Games.

The return leg of the Nigeria/Guinea match has been scheduled for the Complexe Sportif Prince Heritier Moulay Al Hassan, starting from 7pm Morocco time (8pm Nigeria time) on Tuesday, 28th March.

NAN/Obinna Aniakor.