Every word Flying Eagles coach Aliyu Zubairu said after impressive win against Ivory Coast

Flying Eagles coach Aliyu Zubairu has reacted following the team's impressive  2-0 win against Ivory Coast's Young Elephants in their first pre-U20 Africa Cup of Nations friendly match on Wednesday night.

Goals from captain Daniel Bamayi and Divine Oliseh in the second half sealed the win after a goalless first half, providing a morale boost for the team as they prepare for the upcoming CAF U20 tournament.

This friendly match provided the technical team a valuable opportunity to evaluate the squad as they prepare for the upcoming CAF U20 tournament in Cote D'Ivoire.

In his post-match comments, Aliyu Zubairu expressed his thoughts on the game and the ongoing development process.

"My reaction to today's game wouldn't be that important as it is at this level - in as much as we are still in a building process," he stated.

"We came here for the friendly match to be able to know the level at which some of the old players that went to WAFU-B are and the new ones that want to join us.

"If any of those that went to WAFU-B can't meet up with the standard we are looking for, he will be replaced, and so are the new ones if you can't fit in. We still have to keep setting until we get a balanced team for the U20."

Zubairu also highlighted his expectations for the new players set to join the team.

"We are expecting a lot of players, particularly those who have taken their careers abroad, that are eligible.

"We are expecting a reasonable number of them that will join us as soon as we go back to Nigeria. We are planning to go on a week break, so from there, when we regroup, that's when we start expecting the foreign based players to come."

As the Flying Eagles prepare for their second friendly match on Friday, Zubairu emphasized the importance of continued seriousness in their approach.

"We are still going to approach Friday's match with seriousness because we adopted a tactic that we try to look if It's going to work during the AFCON proper.

"So we are going to go for another tactics to see so that we can have a plan A and B- should in case plan A fail us as a team so we can quickly switch to plan B."

The second friendly is set to kick off at 3:30 PM Ivorian time (4:30 PM Nigeria time) at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny, where the Flying Eagles will look to build on their recent success and further solidify their squad ahead of the tournament.

Adeyemi Adewale

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