NIGERIA’S last group match in the ongoing African Youth Championship may pass for a mere formality but the Flying Eagles will not handle it as such.

Group A leaders Flying Eagles, already through to the semi-finals of the competition and the FIFA World Cup, face their counterparts from Ivory Coast in a last group match of the Senegal 2015 AYC. The match takes place today at Stade Caroline Faye, Mbour.

But Flying Eagles player Chidera Ezeh, speaking ahead of today’s match, says the team will approach the game with the intention of winning.

The determination to win today’s match, the Porto FC player says, stems from the losses the Nigerian U-17 team suffered at the hands of the Ivorian team at the African U-17 Championship in 2013.

At the championship hosted by Morocco, Ivory Coast defeated the Golden Eaglets 1-0 at the group stage and 5-4 on penalties in the final.

So to Ezeh, a member of the Nigerian team that went on to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, it is just time to take their pound of flesh from the fellow West Africans.

“Against Cote d’Ivoire, we will be looking for a win as well. They beat us in the final of the Africa U-17 Championship in Morocco in 2013 and we want to avenge that loss,” Ezeh said. 

And beyond the Ivory Coast match, Ezeh revealed that the Flying Eagles are determined to win all their matches and emerge the winners of the AYC.

Ivory Coast, with two points from two matches, need to win today’s match to qualify for the semi-finals and the FIFA U-20 World Cup holding later this year in New Zealand.