Nigeria’s U-23 Eagles invitees, Taiwo Awoniyi and Bonaventure Dennis have departed the Brussels airport in Belgium on Monday for Tunis today ahead of Wednesday’s U-23 AFCON qualifier against Libya at the Bengerdan Stadium.
The pair are among the 11 overseas-based players invited for the 2019 U-23 AFCON qualifying game.
Awoniyi has been in rich vein of form for Royal Excel Mouscron in the Belgian First Division scoring seven goals in nine league appearances while Dennis has scored five times for Club Brugge in 24 games.
“They (Awoniyi and Dennis) just departed for Tunis from Brussels,” a top source revealed.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria U-23 squad departed the shores of the country through Lagos yesterday aboard a Royal Air Maroc flight. Head Coach Imama Amapakabo named a 23-man squad for the game.
After camping for almost three weeks, the former Enugu Rangers’ coach opted for a mixture of local and foreign-based professionals for the battle against the Libyans.
In the list of home-based players are Flying Eagles shot-stopper, Olawale Oremade, who led two other goalkeepers whilst Lobi Stars’ trio of John Lazarus, Ebube Duru and Ugochukwu Anumudu also made the cut.
Other home-based players in the party included Akwa United full-back, Etiboy Akpan and Enyimba’s Oluwadamilare Olatunji. Portugal-based Tosin Kehinde and Chidera Ezeh and Russia-based Olabiran Muyiwa were the only overseas-based players to depart with the team from Nigeria.
The U-23 Eagles are the defending champions of the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations.
Africa’s flag-bearers in the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament of Tokyo 2020 will emerge during the 3rd U-23 AFCON to hold in Egypt in November this