At yesterday's draw announced by Fifa, Nigeria has been drawn in Group B and assistant coach Fatai Amoo said the team has been drawn in a very tough group. He added that it will a tough battle to qualify for the group stage with the draw but he is optimistic that the team will pull through.
Amoo said: “We are in a tough group, so we have to be at our best to move to knockout rounds of the competition. Japan are coming up strongly in recent years, Sweden will always be well organised, while we expect Colombia to be powerful and skilful coming from South America."
Former Super Eagles captain and head coach and a member of the technical and development committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, Christian Chukwu has called for intensive preparations following the draw. He added that in order ensure that the Nigeria U-23 Olympic team wins a gold medal at the Rio Olympics, planning has to start now.
Chukwu said: “It’s not a bad draw but before you become a champion, you must beat everybody along the way to the top. We have won gold before and with good preparations, so we can win it again.
"Any team that qualifies to compete at the Olympics is a potential gold medallist. That is why we must not underrate any team and preparation is key to our campaign.”
He expressed confidence in the technical prowess of coach Samson Siasia who in 2008 took the Dream Team to a silver medal finish. Already, centreback Kenneth Omeruo, currently plying his trade with Kasimpasa, has said he will like to play for Nigeria at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Omeruo, 22, is a Chelsea player on loan to the Turkish club and told Chelsea’s website that he had been enjoying life in Istanbul, adding that his aim was to help the club earn a European place at the end of the season. He added that after that, there is also the Olympics which he might be involved in.
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