The Flying Eagles will step up their preparations for the African Youth Championship in Algeria with two more test games in Tunisia against Esperance U20 and Club Africain.
The Nigeria U20 will take on Esperance on Tuesday, while they battle top club, Club Africain, who were beaten finalists of the 2011 CAF Confederation Cup, on March 11.
Team secretary, Aliyu Ibrahim Lawal, said both matches will have night kick-offs of 7pm as the Flying Eagles are due to play a late game in the group stage of the AYC.
The Flying Eagles have lost their first two warm-up matches in Tunisia, losing 0-2 to the Tunisia U20 team and then 1-2 to Esperance’s main team.
But defeated their Egyptian counterparts 3-1 in Cairo and drew a second game 0-0, both played in Egypt.
Meanwhile, a former Esperance goalkeeper, Jean-Jacques Tizie, has tipped the Flying Eagles to successfully defend the AYC crown they won two years ago in South Africa.
Tizie said: “This is a very mature team.
“They gave Esperance a very good fight and I see them going on to keep their title in Algeria.”
Tizie is the big Ivorian shot stopper, who is now the goalkeeper trainer of the Tunisian champions.
The 40-year-old Tizie featured for ‘The Blood and Gold’ between 2000 and 2006 and won 83 caps for Cote d’Ivoire.
He was top choice for the Elephants at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Nigerian-born winger, Emeka Emerum, who played against the Flying Eagles on Saturday, also said both the Esperance coach and players saluted the quality of the Nigeria U20s.
“They were really surprised by how the Flying Eagles controlled the game especially in the first half,” said Emerum, who only recently signed a four-year contract with the perennial Tunisian champions. “The coach said the team could pass for the Super Eagles and at half time, he told us we had to take the game very seriously.”
Esperance lined up no less than 10 full internationals on Saturday, including Ghana stars Harrison Afful and Emmanuel Clottey as well as Antar Yahia from Algeria.
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