Agbalaka Targets U20 W’Cup Ticket with Flying Eagles

Two-consecutive ‘Man of the Match’ winner, at the on-going U-20 African Cup of Nations tournament, Solomon Agbalaka, is already looking beyond the euphoria of Flying Eagles’ qualification into the next round but wants the FIFA World Cup ticket.

The Nigerian team had enjoyed unbeaten run in the build-up to the tournament but their campaign was caused a set back by Junior Lions of Senegal in the opening match of the Group and the team is back in the grove now.

Following Nigeria’s 2-0 victory over Mozambique on Saturday, the Broad City FC versatile defender who was again named the Man of the Match for the second time in the competition sees the team winning one of the continental tickets to the next U-21 World Cup finals in Indonesia.

Samson Lawal and Ibrahim Muhammad scored two screamers to give the record champions their second victory of the tournament after the lone goal win against host, Egypt earlier in the week.

“I’m happy to be named the Man of the Match for the second time running. It was a good performance and we needed to win and qualify for the quarter-finals of the tournament,” the defender said.

“Our objective is to book a place in the semi-finals which will qualify us to the FIFA U-20 World Cup. We played well and scored good goals today so we will keep improving in the matches to come,” he remarked after the match on Saturday.

Nigeria will face Uganda in quarter-finals at the Suez Canal Stadium in Ismailia on Thursday. They were paired after the draw of a lot last night.

Meanwhile Team’s coach, Ladan Bosso, has tasked the lads to remain focus especially now that they have their fate in hand in the crucial knockout phase of the tournament.

“We came to Egypt with the mindset of picking one of the tickets to the FIFA U-20 World Cup and the victory against Mozambique is something that we planned,” Bosso said.

“We worked for it. We have seen them play about two matches in Cairo.

“We tried to rush them and we did just that and got our two goals in the first half. The second half we introduced other players preparing them for the next stage.”