Olympic Eagles head coach, Imama Amapakabo has stated that his players heeded to his clarion to take game easy and only go in search of a goal at a time after his wards pummeled Libya 4-0 in the return leg of the second round of the Under 23 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The Under 23 team were beaten 2-0 in the first leg in Ben Guerdane, Tunisia and they needed to score at least three unreplied goals to scale through to the next round.
Amapakabo told journalists that he and his swung into action immediately on their return from Tunisia and that his instruction to his players was for them to remain calm down and go in the hunt for a goal at a time and that he was happy that his players paid attention to his instructions to the letter.
“We knew virtually nothing about the Libyans going into the first leg tie in Tunisia. We were fortunate to review the game several times and I am happy that the boys were able to go out there and played the way they did. They did what they had to do and were rewarded with the goals scored,” Amapakabo told journalists.
“I knew what there strong and weak points were after reviewing the first leg result. When we came back home we resumed to work immediately and kudos to the boys they acted very fast to the instructions given them and they created several chances and were able to get four out of them.
“From the outset ever since we came back from Tunisia, I told them that 2-0 was the easiest scoreline to cancel and that all you needed to do was to score one goal and go in search of another one. I told them we needed one goal at a time and they answered big. They came with four.”
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Three goals from Victor Osimhen in the 31st, 66th and 82nd minutes and another from David Okereke in the 92nd minute overturned the two goals deficit while the Olympic Eagles cruised to the third and final round 4-2 on aggregate.