Nigeria U20 team, the Flying Eagles, have expressed confidence they will give a good account of themselves at the expanded Super 4 tournament, which kicks off on Saturday at the Abuja National Stadium. The Flying Eagles and the Nigeria U23 team have been handed special invitations to feature in the pre-season competition, which has drawn league champions Kano Pillars, Enyimba, Warri Wolves and Dolphins. The Nigeria U20, who arrived Abuja on Thursday from their training base in Kaduna, will play their first match on Saturday at the Abuja National Stadium against league runners-up Enyimba. Kick-off is 3pm. On Monday, they will take on Pillars, before they battle Warri Wolves on Wednesday and Dolphins on Friday. Their final match in this round-robin competition will be Sunday, February 1, against Dream Team. Match times are 1pm, 3pm and 5pm. Flying Eagles assistant coach Nduka Ugbade said he is confident the team will do well in the Super 4. - We have worked hard in Kaduna and we believe the team will show this at such a high-performance competition like this, Ugbade said. - This is a very good test for us ahead of the African Youth Championship in March in Senegal as it will afford us the chance to see how far we have gone in our preparations and make any necessary corrections before the AYC. The national U20s have been boosted with the arrival of Musa Yahaya from the Tottenham Hotspur youth team and Chidera Eze, who is with the FC Porto youth setup. Skipper Musa Muhammed, Ifeanyi Matthew and Wilfred Ndidi, who have been away in Europe, are expected to join up before the team’s first game against Enyimba. ………………………………………. Manu Garba and the coaching crew of the Nigeria U20 team have said nine players will be dropped from the side, before they depart for the Championship billed for Senegal. 30 players are presently sweating it out in camp, out of which only 21 will be on the final list. The team’s assistant coach, Nduka Ugbade, revealed that the coaching crew is working round the clock to select the best players for the tournament. The former Junior international also announced that they will be using the Super Six pre-season tournament in Abuja to assess the performance of the players. ………………………………………………. Tunisian giants Esperance have finally unveiled former Dolphin FC and Akwa United forward Emem Eduok. Eduok who has been in the news in recent weeks for all the wrong reasons because of his supposed signing for two clubs at the same time was unveiled in Tunis alongside two other new recruits by the former African champions. As shown in the pictures from the unveiling ceremony, Eduok who has reportedly put pen to paper with the North African side on a three and a half year contract will be donning the number 21 jersey for Esperance. The two other players that wee unveiled alongside Eduok were Hatem Béjaoui, Magno Cruz. …………………………………………… Friday, January 23 OGC Nice 8:30 PM Marseille Saturday, January 24 Lille 5:00 PM Monaco Montpellier 8:00 PM Nantes Bastia 8:00 PM Bordeaux Evian 8:00 PM Toulouse ….. Saturday, January 24 Cagliari 6:00 PM Sassuolo Lazio 8:45 PM Milan Sunday, January 25 Juventus 3:00 PM Chievo Verona 3:00 PM Atalanta Sampdoria 3:00 PM Palermo Inter Milan 3:00 PM Torino ….. Saturday, January 24 Córdoba 4:00 PM Real Madrid Elche 6:00 PM Barcelona Atlético Madrid 8:00 PM Rayo Real Sociedad 10:00 PM Eibar Villarreal 10:00 PM Levante ….. Friday, January 23 Cambridge United 8:55 PM Man United Saturday, January 24 Rovers 1:45 PM Swansea City Man City 4:00 PM Middlesbrough Cardiff City 4:00 PM Reading Sunderland 4:00 PM Fulham … Four matches remain to end the second round of the ongoing 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Equatorial Guinea and a lot of activities have already taken place with more expected. 12 of the 32 matches have already been played with total 23 goals scored, two of which were from the spot. Cape Verde earned the first penalty against Tunisia, South Africa splashed theirs versus Algeria while Ghana through Andre Ayew converted the third of the spot kicks against Senegal. Gervinho red card Ivorian international striker Gervinho was the first player to be shown a red card in this year’s tournament in their 1 – 1 draw against Guinea on Tuesday 20 January. Elsewhere, a number of players have been on the verge of netting own goals in their group matches but at the moment its only South Africa’s defender Thulani Hlatshwayo’s own goal against Algeria which stands out. Three venues This year’s competition is being staged in four venues namely the 35 000 capacity Estadio de Bata, a multi-use stadium in Bata that was constructed by Chinese Contractor Covec and completed in 2007. The venue also hosted the opening ceremony and finals of the 2012 tourney. Estadio de Mongomo, a 15 000 – seater also known in full as Estadio Santiago Nguema Eneme, the 8 000 – seater Nuevo Estadio de Ebibeyin and Estadio de Malabo which accomodates 12 250 people. Top scorers chart Meanwhile, Africas number one nation Algeria leads the scorers chart having banged five goals in the tournament followed by two from Zambia, Senegal and South Africa. No player has scored more than two goals so far and no goalkeeper has kept a cleansheet. Emilio Nsue (Equatorial Guinea) ………….. Four-time champion Roger Federer is out of the Australian Open after being beaten in the third round by unheralded Italian Andreas Seppi. The 33-year-old Swiss second seed went down 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) to Seppi, who is ranked 46 in the world. Seppi, 30, had never beaten the 17-time Grand Slam champion in 10 previous meetings and his win ends a 23-match losing streak against top 10 opponents. I just tried my best and it was one of my best matches for sure, said Seppi. British number one Andy Murray is through to the last 16 but it is the first time since 2003 that Federer has failed to reach at least the semi-finals in Melbourne, and it extends his run without a Grand Slam title which stretches back to Wimbledon 2012.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:45:07 +0000
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