As the Olympic Eagles depart Abuja for Cairo on Thursday for the 2019 Total U-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to be held in Egypt between November 8 and 22, mercurial midfielder Kelechi Nwakali is confident Nigeria can successfully defend the title.
Apart from the trophy at stake, the quadrennial championship also doubles as the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games with three first three team guaranteed automatic tickets to Tokyo 2020 while the fourth-place finisher will battle against a team from the Asian Football Confederation in a play-off.
“It wasn’t easy for us to pick one of the tickets to go to Egypt but we are going to give out our best in Egypt, “ the erstwhile Golden Eaglets’ captain said in an interview with Sportinglife.ng.
The coach Imama Amapakabo –led side have been drawn in a seemingly tough Group B section complete with their bitter West African rivals Cote d’Ivoire as well as Zambia and South Africa.
Nigeria will start their campaign on 9th November at Al Salam Stadium in Cairo against Cote d’Ivoire to be followed with the games against Zambia on 12th November and South Africa on 15th November.
“ Of course, none of our three games is going to be easy but all the same, we must respect the opponents and not believing we can ride on everybody because we are Nigerians,” explained the Spain-based Nwakali who plies his craft with SD Huesca. “Our objective going to Egypt is to pick one of the tickets to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and I believe strongly we are going to achieve our aims by working hard as a team; and individually by bringing out our best qualities to help the team grow.”
Meanwhile, officials are still sweating over the arrival of the Olympic Eagles captain Azubuike Okechukwu who is yet to arrive at the team’s Abuja camp after other Overseas-based professional players including Nwakali, Tom Dele-Bashiru of Watford FC and Orji Okonkwo of Montreal Impact have since joined the camp.
Impeccable sources close to the team informed that Okechukwu is expected to fly straight from his base in Turkey to Cairo after a decisive Super Lig home game for İstanbul Basaksehir against Ankaragucu on Sunday, November 10.
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“ Okechukwu will most certainly join us in Cairo because his club insisted on his presence for an important league match on November 10 and hopefully he can fly into Cairo immediately after the match,” an official informed Sportinglife.ng.