Aliyu Abdulwahid
Nigeria’s U20 boys, Flying Eagles must dig their feet into the ground against Brazil, Italy and Dominican Republic in order to scale the group phase of this year’s FIFA U20 World Cup competition.
Africa’s number three team was slotted into the interesting group D at the draw ceremony for the tournament held at the House of FIFA in Zurich on Friday, with hosts Argentina heading group A that also has Uzbekistan, Guatemala and New Zealand.
Argentina is the most successful nation at the FIFA U20 World Cup since the competition was launched in Tunisia in 1977. The South American nation has won the tournament six times, the last being in 2007. It also hosted the competition 22 years ago.
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles have finished as runners-up on two occasions, in Saudi Arabia in 1989 and in The Netherlands in 2005. They were bronze medallists in the USSR in 1985.
This year’s championship will take place between 20 May and 11 June.
GROUP A: Argentina, Uzbekistan, Guatemala, New Zealand
GROUP B: USA, Ecuador, Fiji Islands, Slovakia
GROUP C: Senegal, Japan, Israel, Colombia
GROUP D: Italy, Brazil, Nigeria, Dominican Republic
GROUP E: Uruguay, Iraq, England, Tunisia
GROUP F: France, Korea Republic, The Gambia, Honduras.
