AHEAD of the second round, return legmatch of the African Youth Championship qualifier between the Flying Eagles of Nigeria and Ngorogoro Heroes of Tanzania, former coach of the Nigerian side, Issah Ladan Bosso, has tasked the technical crew to strengthen the team's defence line to be assured of victory at home.The Nigerian team beat its host 2-1 in the first leg. According to the Bosso, the battle to subdue the Heroes was only half won going by the comments of Tanzania's coach, Jakob Michelsen, who stressed that his team still has a chance in the return leg in a fortnight after his boys' spirited performance in the second half of the first leg.On this score, he has urged them to tone down their celebration over the victory and put in place a solid plan to enable them complete the defeat and move on to the next stage. He said: 'My team was playing same time and same day, so I could not watch the match.'However, since I have seen the team play before, I would urge the technical crew to fine-tune our defence because results of the last two matches showed that something was wrong with that department.'As a coach, if your team concedes two goals in two straight matches, it simply means that you have some work to do in the defence. That is the task I want the team's handlers to take seriously.'Bosso, who opined that the loss to Rwandan few days before the qualifier was a blessing in disguise for the team, added that the defeat really strengthened the side, forcing it to step up its performance.'For me, that loss to the Rwandans contributed immensely to bringing out the fire from the team. That is why when people were castigating the team for the loss, I said it was a blessing in disguise,' Bosso stated.'One thing we should do is to appreciate the efforts of the Nigeria Football Federation for organising that international friendly match. That friendly served as a medium for the team to appreciate its areas of strength and weaknesses.'All said, Bosso urged the team to be set for a final showdown because 'the Tanzanians will come as wounded lions needing to heal their wounds. It would be disastrous for them to catch us wanting. Let the team know that as we went there and recorded success, they can do same here.'Meanwhile, the return leg match has been moved by a day to Sunday, August 12, but still at the Ilorin Township Stadium.
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