Mozambique coach Dario Monteiro has urged his Young Os Mambas to believe they can beat Nigeria in their decisive U-20 Africa Cup of Nations Group A clash in Ismailia this Saturday.
The Cosafa runners-up will travel to the Suez Canal Stadium in Ismailia to battle against Ladan Bosso’s Flying Eagles.
Mozambique sit bottom of Group A alongside Egypt with a solitary point while Nigeria are in second place with 3 points and Senegal top the standing with 6 points.
“We need a win and we will try our best to get it,” Monteiro told journalists.
“We know that it’s a complicated match and it’s not easy to play against Nigeria they’re strong but we will try our best. We had two strong matches and two strong teams.
“We know that this group will not be easy but I believe my boys will get better game by game. The previous two matches gave them experience and playing time so if we recover well they can compete with Nigeria.”
The Mozambican trainer insisted his team must focus on the match and they should not lose against Nigeria.
“We will try not to lose the game because we don’t have that chance to lose again. We must be ambitious if we want to get a good result and go to the next stage, we must give our best so we know that we will talk to the boys,” Dario said.
They must believe that they can win if they believe we’re close to winning. We need to think about Nigeria first before worrying about qualifying. In our mind is the Nigerian team because they’re in high morale after winning their last match.”
Kimiss Rebelina Zavala echoed his coach’s statement and said the Os Mambas are prepared to face the West Africans in Ismailia.
“We’re prepared for the match against Nigeria to get a good result. The team is concentrated, and we will give our best on the pitch to get a good result,” Kimiss said.
“It doesn’t matter where we play, what matters is we are in Ismaili ready to face Nigeria and we will fight for everything to achieve our objective of winning.”
-Cafonline