The Flying Eagles on Saturday in Abuja continued their preparations for next month’s African Youth Championship qualifiers with a 4-0 thrashing of Dabo Babes Football Club of Kano.
The friendly match, which was played at the FIFA Goal Project pitch of the National Stadium, Abuja, saw Alhassan Ibrahim scoring a hat-trick against the hard-fighting Nigeria Nation-Wide League side.
Ifeanyi Matthew scored the national under-20 men football team’s fourth goal.
Dabo Babes, however, stood up to the Nigerian under-20s for long, and it was not until first half stoppage time that substitute Ibrahim opened scoring with a simple tap-in.
Goalkeeper Abdallah Sulaiman pulled off several saves, including denying Flying Eagles’ skipper, Musa Muhammed, in the 29th minute, when he dived full length to push the ball for a corner kick.
The Flying Eagles were awarded a penalty kick in the 58th minute, when Taiwo Awoniyi was blocked on his way to goal inside the penalty area.
Ibrahim then stepped up to convert the penalty kick to extend the national side’s lead.
Ibrahim, scorer of the team’s three goals in a recent two-leg international friendly in Morocco, completed his hat-trick in the 74th minute with a powerful left-footed shot.
Five minutes later, Matthew smashed home the fourth goal with a well-struck rocket from outside the penalty area.
Nduka Ugbade, the Flying Eagles’ Assistant Coach, said after the match: “We’re just starting the actual building and coaching of the team.
“But there have been improvements and we hope to be 40 per cent to 50 per cent up to our full potentials by our first leg qualifier next month.”
The Flying Eagles will face the winners of the fixture involving Kenya and Tanzania next month.
The fixture is in continuation of the qualifying series for the 2015 AYC to be staged by Senegal in March.
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