Prince Udofia, the mercurial Golden Eaglets’ coordinator, believes the Nigerian youngsters would shake off their Friday’s semi-final loss to Benin when they meet Togo in the third-place play off at the WAFU B Under-17 Tournament in Togo on Sunday.
The game would be decided at 3pm local time (4pm Nigerian time) at the Stade Municipal before the finale between Benin and Mali.
Reviewing Eaglets’ shock penalty shoot-out loss, Udofia maintained that it was Nigeria and not Benin that should be meeting Mali in the final but for some questionable officiating.
The Golden Eaglets were the only team that did not lose a game in regulation time in the competition as they spanked Mali 2-0 in their Group B double-header and Udofia is confident that the boys would be back and better against Togo.
“I want to believe that our boys would respond well against Togo on Sunday because they were so pained about way they lost in the semi-final to Benin,” he said. “They have been advised by Alhaji (Yussuf) Fresh and Mr. (Patrick) Pascal; and I think this would spur them against Togo.”
The Golden Eaglets in the meantime, trained on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s match and officials are confident they would be ready for the final assault against hosts, Togo, who lost 4-0 in the other semi-final on Friday
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