Sports

AFCON U-20: Mozambique Coach Confident Of Finishing Above Flying Eagles

The head coach of the Mozambique U-20 national team, Dario Monteiro is adamant that his Young Os Mambas will secure qualification to the quarterfinals of the CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

Mozambique will face Nigeria on Saturday evening after their 3-0 Wednesday’s defeat to Senegal.

“We are now preparing to face Nigeria on Saturday. The match is not easy, but we are holding on to our chance to rise and we will fight for victory. It is now clear, either we win or we return to our country,” Monteiro told football journalists at his post-match conference on Wednesday.

“We performed well in the first half and prevented Senegal from scoring any goal. We also took the initiative to attack and tried to score, but we did not take advantage of the opportunity.

“The situation was completely different in the second half, and the team could not continue to resist the Senegal attack. We have to admit that the Senegal national team is very strong and we have more time to reach their level.”

Mozambique are bottom of Group A after the heavy defeat. Egypt, by virtue of a supposedly better result, though suffered a defeat to Nigeria, are third on the log.

“Currently, we only think about the Saturday match, and we will start working on it from now in order to preserve all our chances of qualifying for the next round,” the Mozambique coach concluded.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.