Nigeria U-23 national team coach Imama Amapakabo has revealed that his Olympic Eagles studied Zambia’s style of play in order to clip them ahead of their Tuesday crucial match which Nigeria won 3-1 in Egypt.

Amapakapo said they knew that Zambia played mostly on the wings and hence they made a contingency plan to stymie them.

“From our study of them, we knew that always they are going to go to the right and keep a player wide on the left and they will try to find him. So we made a contingency plan for them and waited for them.

“They are a team that we prepared for that whenever they attack, they attack in the wings if the ball comes on top in the box whoever player comes shoots,” Imama said.

Zambia took the lead through Patson Daka early in the first half but goals from Orji Okwonkwo, Kelechi Nwakali, and Taiwo Owoniyi turned things around and gave them a resounding 3-1 win over Young Copper Bullets.

Nigeria will square off with South Africa at the Al-Salaam Stadium while Zambia will play Ivory Coast on Friday at Cairo International Stadium in the final Group B match.

Meanwhile, Zambia U-23 national team striker Patson Daka says he is disappointed with the 3-1 loss the team suffered at the hands of Nigeria on Tuesday.

Daka believes the team did everything they could because they knew how important the match was for them.

“I am very disappointed with the result, we did our best in order to get the three points, unfortunately, it did not go our way.

“Everyone knew how important this game was and how the three points would have changed the situation but nevertheless we have to learn from what we have not done very well in this game. We have to move on to the next game,” he said.

Daka went on to say that the team will now have to shift their focus to the last group game against Ivory Coast on Friday and fight for maximum points.

“We just have to concentrate on the last game and of course we are going for three points regardless of what will happen, we will fight on and go for maximum points because at the end of the day we do not know what will happen,” he said.

Zambia started their campaign with a 0-0 draw with South Africa before losing 3-1 to Nigeria. Zambia needs to beat Ivory Coast on Friday to have a chance of making it to the semi-finals.