F’Eagles not on Ivorian revenge mission – Manu

Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba has ruled out a revenge mission when Nigeria clash against Ivory Coast in the 2015 Africa Under-20 Championship last group match at the Caroline Faye Stadium in Mbour, Senegal on Saturday.

“People have spoken of revenge, but we are not interested in that. We just want to keep on winning our matches because if we win all our games in Senegal, we will be champions,” AfricanFootball.com quoted Manu as saying on Friday.

“Ivory Coast will likely sit back in defence and hope to catch us on the counter, but we will be ready for them.”

Nigeria became the first team to qualify for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand after beating Congo 4-1 in their Group A encounter at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium in Dakar on Wednesday, leaving Ivory Coast, Senegal and Congo to fight for the second World Cup slot in the group.

Nigeria lead the Group A standings with six points followed by Ivory Coast in the second place with two points. Senegal and Congo have one point each. The Junior Elephants will bow out of the race if they lose to Nigeria – if there a win in second group fixture between Senegal and Congo in Dakar also on Saturday.

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Ivory Coast won   the Morocco 2013 CAF U-17 Championship at Nigeria’s expense after they beat the Golden Eaglets 5-4 on penalties at Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech on April 27, 2013.

Manu, who guided the Eaglets to glory at the 2013 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, after Morocco 2013, will lead some of the players who were in the team, which lost to the Ivorians in Marrakech, against the Junior Elephants in Senegal today.

Incidentally, the former El-Kanemi player will face Ibrahim Kamara, who was in the dugout when Ivory Coast lifted the U-17 title in Morocco.

Nigeria forward Chidera Ezeh, who played in Morocco, said, “We are focused on winning the match even though we have already won the group.

“It won’t be an easy match particularly after what happened at the U17 level.

“We respect them, but don’t fear them and we will win.”