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Poland 2019: Bebeto is draw Assistant as F/Eagles await opponents

 

Brazilian legend Bebeto will partake in deciding the fate of Flying Eagles and the other contending 23 teams as draw for the FIFA under 20 world cup takes place on Friday in Gdynia, Poland, FIFA has revealed

Bebeto who is a household name among soccer fans in Nigeria following his fight to the finish effort to prevent Nigeria from defeating Brazil at the Atlanta 96 Olympics to no avails, will be joined by his Portuguese counterpart Fernando Couto. The Atlanta96 battle which remains a reference point till today saw Nigeria beat Brazil 4-3 in a breath taking encounter en-route to the final where she again defeated Argentina 3-2 to clinch football gold.

Bebeto, a winner of the FIFA World Cup™ in 1994 and the FIFA U-20 World Cup 1983, and Couto, who won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1989, will be the draw assistants for the ceremony at 17:30 CET in Gdynia Arena.

Nigeria is in Pot two with Mali, New Zealand, Colombia, Korea Republic and Italy.

Recalling his experience at winning the FIFA U-20 world cup in 1983 Bebeto had this to say; “Winning the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1983 was an absolute highlight in my career. This was not only about the matches but the atmosphere, the stadiums and the overall setting. Having such a tremendous football history and tradition, I’m sure Poland will put on a fantastic tournament,” 

Couto on his part appeared to warn participating teams that the competition is not a team party.

“From my experience, the FIFA U-20 World Cup is an extremely challenging and exciting competition as it’s an open race with plenty of teams able to make it to the later stages, including of course the host country. Polish and international fans can look forward to a thrilling tournament and plenty of attacking football,” he said

Based on a ranking built on past sporting performance, the 24 qualified teams have been allocated to four pots of six teams as follows:

Pot 1: Poland, Portugal, Uruguay, France, USA, Mexico

Pot 2: Mali, Nigeria, New Zealand, Colombia, Korea Republic, Italy

Pot 3: Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Argentina, Ecuador, Ukraine, Honduras

Pot 4: Japan, South Africa, Panama, Norway, Qatar, Tahiti

Hosts Poland will be pre-assigned to position A1 and play all their group matches in Lodz.

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