The delegation of seven –time African champions Egypt have arrived in Nigeria for Tuesday’s prestige friendly with Nigeria’s Super Eagles.
On Sunday morning, a chartered Air Peace aircraft flew from Nigeria to Niamey, capital of Niger Republic to airlift the delegation to Asaba, capital of Delta State, where they confront three –time African champions Nigeria on Tuesday evening.
The Pharaohs, already qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations that they host this summer, drew 1-1 with hosts Niger Republic on Saturday in one of the final –day AFCON qualifying matches.
The delegation of 24 players, 21 technical and backroom staff and five journalists landed at the Asaba Airport in the early afternoon, and is accommodated at Golden Tulip Hotel.
The Pharaohs will train at the Stephen Keshi Stadium on Monday evening, after the Africa U23 Cup of Nations qualifier between Nigeria and Libya.
Meanwhile, assistant coach of the team, Tito Garcia Sanjvan said the team was coming with a winning mentality.
He added the friendly match was important to the team being the last FIFA window before the Nations Cup holding in Egypt. According to him: “We play always to win. We try to do our best.For us it is an important because Nigeria is a very tough team. It is important because it is our last match before the tournament for our young players.”
He said testing the young Egyptian team away against Nigeria will help toughen them. Sanjvan said the Egyptian team stands a good chance of emerging champions at the 2019 Total African Nations Cup, adding that Algeria, Morrocco, Tunisia, Nigeria and Senegal can win the African Nations Cup.
His words: “There are 5 or 7 teams in the tournament that can win the Nations and Nigeria is one. This type of tournaments is difficult to predict so we take it step by step”.