By Niyi Busari

Head coach of Nigeria’s Mini-football national team, Fabian Edaba has assured Nigerians of securing the three points against Senegal.

As hosts, Nigeria made a sluggish start to their campaign with a 0-0 draw with Libya in ongoing Mini-football Africa Cup of Nations at the Ilaji Hotels and Resorts in Ibadan on Wednesday.

However, they will hope to boost their chances of advancing in a face off in their second game of the competition on Saturday with defending champions, Senegal, who defeated Zambia 3-2 in their opener.

Ahead of the all West African showdown, Fabian said: “Having witnessed many goals in games played after Nigerian’s opening barren draw with Lybia, what are you doing to make sure Nigeria start scoring goals.

“Today (On Saturday), even in our morning training, I really emphasis on that. On goal scoring with my players and then we put them into practice. Shooting and other scoring tactics, that’s what we did and I emphasis it on them that we really need to score goals if we must succeed. We need to have the mentality of scoring goals and that’s what we did in our morning session and I believe we will definitely score goals and we’re going to come out victorious.

“The players are in high spirits, the camp is bubbling and the players themselves know they need to win this match today and all of them are in high spirits, they are in good shape and today they’re promising Nigerian that they will come out victorious.”

In the same vein, team’s captain, Mike Ocheje also shared the same optimism despite the pedigree of the Senegalese.

“We’re playing against the champions and we need to put in extra efforts to make sure we conquer them,” Ocheje assured.

“Some of us are new into the system, that’s the first game for us, we’ve gotten the experience and with our second game today, we will be better.

“By the grace of God, nothing short of victory today. We’re capable of beating Senegal tonight,” concluded the goal keeper and captain of the side.

The Nigeria national team will slug it out with Senegal in their second group game at the Ilaji Minifootball pitch at 5:30 pm local time today.