After wrapping up a crucial 12-day training camp that featured international friendlies against Chile and Australia, Flying Eagles head coach Aliyu Zubairu has expressed satisfaction with his side’s progress and confidence heading into the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Nigeria’s U-20s played out a 1-1 draw against Chile before recording an emphatic victory over Australia, scoring three goals in the process. For Zubairu, the results are secondary; the real gain lies in the team’s evolution.
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Reflecting on the 12-day preparation period, the coach stressed that the matches served more as laboratories for improvement than as exhibitions of dominance.
“We have gone a long way. Like you mentioned, the two matches that we played, I think the outcome or the result of the matches is not even what matters to us.
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“What matters most is for us to identify where our problems are and to work on them. Where the deficiencies are, to work on them, which we are able to detect.”
The Chile encounter exposed flaws, but the Flying Eagles showed marked growth against Australia, something Zubairu was quick to highlight.
“If you see our match against Chile, we noticed a lot of deficiencies and we worked on them. And we realised against Australia, the corrections we made, they really worked. And we see improvement in the correction.
“The matches, the two matches are going to give us confidence, and it’s going to give us bearing for us to approach the World Cup proper. We really gained one or two things from the matches.”
Addressing the goal-scoring question
One of the glaring weaknesses during the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations in Egypt was Nigeria’s lack of cutting edge in attack. The team struggled for goals, and the frontline often lacked sharpness in the final third.
But in just two friendlies on foreign soil, the Flying Eagles have already scored four times, with different players finding the net.
That, for Zubairu, is proof that things are changing.
“Yes, compared to what happened in AFCON, there’s a lot of improvement. The four goals we have scored here, you can see that different players scored the four goals. Which was not like that in AFCON; our attacks were not biting at all during AFCON.
“But from the two matches we have played, we have seen a lot of improvement. The attack is biting better now, and we are exploiting all the spaces in the final third of the opponent.
I believe that, before the World Cup proper, the little time we have, we are still going to work more on it. And I believe we are going to get it better during the World Cup proper.”
The road ahead
With Norway awaiting Nigeria in their World Cup opener on Monday, 29 September, Zubairu’s Flying Eagles are banking on the lessons from Chile and Australia to fine-tune their tactical discipline and sharpen their offensive bite.
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Nigeria has a proud history at the FIFA U-20 World Cup, finishing as runners-up twice (1989 and 2005) and consistently producing stars who graduate to the Super Eagles.
Zubairu’s task is not just to compete but to ensure his players embrace the same winning mentality that made past generations fearless.
The coach is confident his team is on the right path for now.
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