No team has won the third place match of the Africa U-20 Nations Cup more than the Flying Eagles of Nigeria.
Just as they are record holders in winning the trophy, so also they are in the losers’ final matches in which they had won three times.
A win against Tunisia on Friday takes their record to four after their triumphs in 1995, 2005 and 2013. They lost the third place match only once in 2019 when they lost to South Africa.
According to the NFF media release, the team on Wednesday commenced training after their championship match elimination on Monday.
A lone goal defeat to The Gambias’ Young Scorpions in the tournament’s second semi-final in Cairo condemned the Flying Eagles to the classification match, in which they come up against Tunisia, who crumbled 3-0 to the sterling Senegalese in the first semi-final in Cairo the same day.
Friday’s clash at the Cairo International Stadium will kick off at 4pm Egypt time (3pm Nigeria time).
Isah Ladan Bosso’s wards resumed training on Wednesday evening at the 30 June Stadium training pitch in preparations for the tie against the Tunisians. The training session lasted for 90 minutes with Bosso and his assistants in charge.
It was the first training session of the Flying Eagles since the team lost 0-1 to The Gambia on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Confederation of African Football has appointed Mohamed Athoumani from The Comoros Islands as referee for the third-place match, alongside Fanta Idriss Kone from Mali (assistant referee 1), Soukaina Hamdi (assistant referee 2) and Lamin Jammeh from The Gambia (fourth official).
Bouhtane Said from The Comoros will serve as match commissioner with Imade El Fahouss from Morocco in the role of general coordinator.