By Albert Akota
The Head Coach of the Nigeria U20 team Manu Garba, has dropped two players ahead of this weekend’s 2015 Africa Youth Championship (AYC) qualifier against Tanzania.
Goalkeeper Abdulazeez Abubakar and defender Ifeanyi Nweke are the two players who will not make the trip to Tanzania.
Garba, who is still seething following the team’s 0-1 reverse to Benin Republic’s U20s in a warm-up game on Sunday has warned the other players retained to either “prove yourselves or go home”,.
“You have to prove yourself by our next game or you go home. Sunday’s game in Cotonou is now in the past,” Garba said.
The no-nonsense trainer is now focused on the upcoming qualifying game against the East Africans and insists that the errors noticed during Sunday’s loss to Benin must be eliminated.
“We have seen some of our lapses and we will correct them before the qualifier in Tanzania.
“We remain positive and want to win in Tanzania so that the return leg will be a mere formality,” he said.
The Flying Eagles returned to Lagos yesterday morning and are due to fly out to Tanzania on Wednesday afternoon.
Eighteen players will fly out to East Africa from the Murtala Mohammed International Airport on Wednesday with the hosts, Tanzania, yet to confirm if the game will be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
The Ngongoro Heroes (Tanzania U20s) edged past neigbours Kenya on penalties after both legs of their first round qualifier failed to produce any goal.
Two years ago, the Flying Eagles eliminated Tanzania 4-1 on aggregate with the Nigerians winning the first leg in Tanzania 2-1.
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