13th April, 2015
Match hero in Nigeria’s All Africa Games qualifier against Zambia in Lusaka yesterday, Taiwo Awoniyi has continued to receive praises over his performance in the crucial match.
Flying Eagles assistant coach, Nduka Ugbade hailed in-form striker, Awoniyi after the young forward’s brace ensured a 2-1 win over Zambia at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on Sunday and qualified Nigeria’s U-23 side to the men’s football event of the 2015 All Africa Games.
Dream Team VI coach Samson Siasia had invited five players including Awoniyi, Captain Musa Mohammed and Bernard Bulbwa from the victorious Flying Eagles team at the concluded 2015 African Youth Championship.
According to Ugbade, Awoniyi and Bulbwa who also featured in the game should be hailed for their form and contributions.
“I believed and I knew the boys from the Under 20 team would prove their mettle in Lusaka. I’m overwhelmed with what the players that joined the U-23 team from the Flying Eagles camp. Then above all for the Head Coach, Samson Siasia and the technical crew because many thought they were on a mission impossible but we kept hope alive.
“This one is done so we should prepare a lot better for the future. And when Taiwo comes back home, I am going to carry him up. I’ll kiss him on the head because he’s a brilliant lad for representing us well,” Ugbade told www.footballlive.ng.
The win didn’t come on a platter, admitted Coach Siasia, adding that his wards made qualification a difficult for themselves, having to win the ticket the ‘hard way’.
He said: “This team have been together only four months, so it’s a team that’s growing. We can expect to play better than we’ve done so far. We were quite clumsy at home in the first-leg, We came out here to do it the hard way, it was a really difficult game but we played to instruction, we had those chances and we took them.”
Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Mohammed Sanusi has expressed delight with the qualification of the country’s men and women’s team for the football events of this year’s All Africa Games billed for Congo, Brazzaville in September.
“We give the glory to God that our teams have qualified for the All Africa Games and of course to thank all Nigerians who stood by us; we appreciate their support and we won’t let them down” Sanusi told footballlive.ng.
“We are going to make sure that any competition we enter; we’ll represent the country very well. We still have the Olympics qualifier and the Super Falcons still has the World Cup. Our character has always been to give the team’s quality preparations but you know that the AAG and the Olympics are under the National Sports Commission (NSC) but we will make sure that we collaborate with them to make sure that we give the teams adequate preparations”