The national U17 team head coach is delighted with his lads’ qualification for Niger 2015 and has now set a target to reach the Fifa U-17 World Cup

Head coach of the Nigeria U17 team, Emmanuel Amuneke has expressed his happiness following his team’s qualification for the Africa U17 Championship Niger 2015.

The Golden Eaglets overturned a 2-1 deficit suffered in Libreville in the first leg to qualify 6-2 on aggregate following their 5-0 victory in the return leg.

According to the former African football of the year, the qualification is a sign of relief following the in-house crisis rocking the Nigeria Football Federation that almost cost his side qualification.

"It means so much to me for obvious reasons. I was an assistant the last time the team qualified for the African U-17 Championship and now as the defending world champions, I have been given the responsibility of handling the team,” Amuneke told Cafonline.com.

"It has never been easy coupled with the administrative problems the federation is having but it is great that we have been able to do this despite the pressure.

"This team is not the same like last year’s but we are looking to Niger with good possibility. It was a good moment for me that we qualified with the way we did because there were some doubts after we lost 2-1 in Libreville but I’m so glad at the response of the boys in the second leg and we won 5-0."

Having qualified for Niger 2015, Amuneke has now set his sight on qualifying for the 2015 Fifa U17 World Cup billed for Chile.

"We have different objectives or stages when we started this project. One was to qualify for Niger and the second was to qualify for the World Cup in Chile.

"We just want to take things in order; the qualification is different from the championship itself since it involves different strategies and plans," he concluded.