Amuneke Fires-up Eaglets Against Egypt

Emmanuel Amuneke, Golden Eaglets' Head Coach, has told his players to gird their loins as they face their Egyptian counterparts in two-test matches slated for Friday and Sunday.

The former Zamalek and  Barcelona winger  actually  stopped  the lads in the middle of a trek around  their  Sheraton Dreamland camp on Thursday  to remind them  about the importance of the task at hand: "

You can see  how beautiful this place is but  you  have many more beautiful years ahead of you if only you can cease this opportunity by  being responsible  and ready to fight  for a place in the team.

"I want you to give these two matches your best to prove again that you are good enough to be picked," he said.

The two matches would take place at 10pm local time (9:00pm in Nigeria) due to the on-going observance of the Ramadan by the Muslims but Amuneke said he was not disturbed by the arrangement.

"We are expecting a tougher game because we saw their reaction (the Egyptians) after they lost the first game to us in Kaduna," he stated matter-of-factly. "They were furious as such; we are expecting a much more difficult game on Friday.

"We have also seen that they have progressively improved with the way they beat Sudan home and away in their last African U-17 Championship qualifiers but we would be ready to present them with a tough opposition," he noted.

He enthused  further that his  players would not be  caught napping under floodlight  following their  experience at the  WAFU B Under-17 Tournament, adding that  the Ramadan  would have no adverse effect on the matches.

"What we have been doing all this while is to prepare our boys mentally ready to play under any situation because we actually played and won our first match in Togo under floodlight," he stressed. "Most of our players are used to playing during Ramadan and the same goes to the Egyptians, so I don't think it would affect us."