Ahead of the opening match of the Under 17 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, Golden Eaglets coach, Manu Garba has stated that the team are not under any pressure to qualify for the 18^th edition of the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup to be hosted in Brazil.

Coach Manu who disclosed this in an interview said that the priority of the team remains Tanzania AFCON and the need for the team to do well.

“We do not even know the word under pressure. We are not under pressure,” the coach started

“We have seen improvement in the team especially from the new boys in camp. We are able to give chances to a lot of new boys and when we come back from Turkey, we are going to give them more chance to fight for positions in the team.

“The only place we are still looking out for is in the goalkeeping department. For the right-back, we have seen players we can use there, in the defence we are fully covered. And in attack, we have good players so it is only the goalkeeping area that we need very good goalkeepers to support the number one.

“We are going to Turkey with the players that played in Niger the only addition are two new players. Turkey is a good preparatory tournament for us and it will afford us opportunities to look at a lot of issues. Our priority is to do well in Tanzania and play in the semi-final. From there we see what happens,” he concluded.

The 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup will be hosted by Brazil from November 2 to 24 with 24 teams to vie for the coveted crown. So far, only four countries – Australia, Japan, South Korea and Tajikistan have qualified for the tournament.

Africa representatives – four countries – will be determined during the 13 edition of 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations to be hosted by Tanzania from 14 to 28 April, 2019. The four semi-finalist will represent Africa in the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2017 edition of the tournament.