Nigeria’s U-23 team, known as the Dream Team, has been placed in a group of death that consists of Ivory Coast, South Africa and Zambia for the 2019 African Under-23 Championships to be staged in Egypt from November 8-22.
Nigeria qualified for the group stage of the competition after mauling Sudan 5-1 on aggregate. The team lost the first leg 1-0 in Sudan before winning the second leg 5-0 at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, Delta State capital.
Interestingly, Nigeria is the only one out of the eight teams that would participate at the tournament to have lifted the trophy before, which they have managed in 2015, while South Africa and Egypt are the only other sides to have appeared in the knockout rounds.
The Imama Amapakabo-led team would be hoping to use the tournament to qualify Nigeria for the 2020 Olympic Games slated for Japan.
Only the top two teams in each pool will advance to the semifinals and have two bites at an Olympics place in the Last four fixtures and the third-place play-off.
Host, Egypt, is the top seed in Group A and will battle Cameroon, Ghana and Mali for a ticket to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.