Nigeria U-17 head coach Nduka Ugbade believes the prospect of qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup will provide a huge motivation for his side when they face Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations on Thursday.
The Golden Eaglets are the most successful side in the World Cup, having won the tournament five times and qualified for 12 editions, and they are looking to return to the world stage after crashing out in the Round of 16 of the 2019 edition.
“This match will be important for us as it will qualify us for the World Cup,” Ugbade told CAF website. “Burkina Faso has a really good team and we have played against them before and we experienced a very difficult match. We expect it to be the same in the quarter-final.
“My message before the match to the players is that these competitions are usually intense, and I told them we must have the will and play the match as it should, and stressed that winning makes us qualify for the World Cup.”
Nigeria finished second in Group B, six points behind Morocco, after defeating Zambia and South Africa. They will face Les Etalons at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers later today at 8pm WAT.
