Eguavoen Upbeat; Sure Of Olympic Ticket

Nigeria’s Olympic team coach, Austin Eguavoen, has vowed to make the best of his depleted squad after arriving in Morocco for the maiden CAF U-23 Championship without some of his best players.

“I’ve given it my all but the reality is that these players are not going to be with us in Morocco,” Cafonline.com quotes Eguavoen as saying.

“I travelled all around Europe to beg clubs to give me Nigerian players but no luck.

“Other teams too will not have their best players available so we just have to live with it. We have to respect the players that are here because they all merit the opportunity to represent Nigeria.

“They have been together for the past six weeks so there is a growing confidence in the team that we can secure a ticket to London,” he said.

“Those not here really want to play for the Olympic teams and go to the games but on the other hand clubs say no, so there’s nothing they can do.”

Nigeria will open their campaign against hosts Morocco on 26 November.