Tanzania Vow To Crush Nigeria’s Flying Eagles

The Ngorogoro Heroes of Tanzania have promised to upset champions Nigeria in Sunday’s 2013 African Youth championship qualifier in Dar es Salam.

In April, the Tanzania U-20 team defeated their Sudanese counterparts 4-3 on aggregate to advance to the second round of the qualifying series against the Flying Eagles.

“After we beat Sudan to qualify for this round, we now want to surprise the defending champions Nigeria,” said Tanzania new coach Jakob Michelsen, who replaced fellow Dane Kim Poulsen about a month ago.

“We face a very difficult opponent in Nigeria, who are the African champions and were only beaten by France in the quarterfinal of the World Cup by France last year.

“We have some difficulties in form of suspensions, injuries and the refusal of the foreign clubs to release some of our players. “We will be without five players from the starting XI and as such need to get capable replacements.”

The Tanzanian absentees include top star striker Thomas Ulimwengu, who was not released by his club TP Mazembe, as well as defenders Ramadan Hassan Khamis and Manula Aishi Salum, who have both been suspended for this game.

Tanzania skipper Seme Omega said they expect the fans at the 60,000-capacity National Stadium to rally behind them on Sunday.

“We’re well prepared and we therefore ask Tanzanians to support us to win this match,” said the Yanga star.

Both teams have lost to Rwanda. Tanzania lost 2-0 and then 2-1 all at home to their next-door neighbours recently, while Nigeria fell to the Junior Wasps 1-0 in Kigali.

Michelsen and Flying Eagles coach John Obuh insisted that the results of those friendly matches were not crucial, but rather the performance of their teams.

Obuh said he expects a big fight from the home team in front of their fans. “We have been working hard and are prepared for the game. We only pray for some luck,” he said.