Flying Eagles head coach, Aliyu Zubairu has reiterated his commitment to assembling a strong squad capable of winning the 2025 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations.
The nine-time African champions secured a 2-0 victory over Côte d’Ivoire in a friendly match on Wednesday in Abidjan, marking their first major test since defeating Ghana in the final of the WAFU B Championship last year.
Zubairu expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance but emphasized that the primary objective remains squad development ahead of the U-20 AFCON.
Assessing Squad Strength
Reflecting on the victory, Zubairu stressed the importance of evaluating both returning and new players to determine their readiness for the competition.
“My reaction to today’s game wouldn’t be that important as it is at this level in as much as much as we are still in a building process,” he told reporters after the match.
“We came here for the friendly match to be able to know the level at which some of the old players that went to WAFU-B are and the new ones that want to join us.
If any of those that went to WAFU-B can’t meet up with the standard we are looking for, he will be replaced, and so are the new ones if you can’t fit in. We still have to keep setting until we get a balanced team for the U20.”
Integration of Foreign-Based Players
Zubairu also highlighted plans to integrate foreign-based players into the squad once they return to Nigeria.
“We are expecting a lot of players, particularly those who have taken their careers abroad, that are eligible. We are expecting a reasonable number of them that will join us as soon as we go back to Nigeria.
We are planning to go on a week break, so from there, when we regroup, that’s when we start expecting the foreign-based players to come.”
As the Flying Eagles prepare for their second friendly against Côte d’Ivoire on Friday, Zubairu emphasized the need to experiment with different tactical approaches.
“We are still going to approach Friday’s match with seriousness because we adopted a tactic that we try to see if It’s going to work during the AFCON proper.
So we are going to go for another tactic to see so that we can have a plan A and B- should in case plan A fail us as a team so we can quickly switch to plan B.”
The second friendly will kick off at 3:30 PM Ivorian time (4:30 PM Nigeria time) at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny, where the Flying Eagles will aim to build on their momentum and fine-tune their squad.
This match serves as another crucial test for the team as they continue preparations for the U-20 AFCON, with hopes of securing a place at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile later this year.
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