24th FIFA U20 World Cup Finals: Flying Eagles Travel to Chile for 12-Day Camping

Nigeria’s Under-20 football team – the Flying Eagles, have traveled to the South American nation of Chile for their final phase of camping, ahead of this year’s FIFA Under-20 World Cup finals. The seven-time African champions will play all their Group F matches at the Estadio Fiscal in the city of Talca, located two hundred and fifty kilometres from the Chilean capital, Santiago. They will first confront Norway on Monday, September 29, before clashing with Saudi Arabia on October 2nd, and Colombia on October 5. A team of 20 players and 11 officials (midfielder Daniel Daga will join the team in Chile from his base in Norway) departed from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Sunday evening, aboard a Turkish Airline flight to Istanbul, where the contingent will connect to Santiago – venue of their final phase camping. The seven-time African champions had training sessions in Abuja for some weeks, before Sunday’s departure. The 24th FIFA U20 World Cup finals will be played across the cities of Santiago, Rancagua, Valparaiso and Talca. The competition, which started as the FIFA World Youth Tournament, was launched in 1977 and was first hosted by Tunisia. Nigeria were narrowly edged by Korea Republic after extra time in the semifinals at the last championship hosted by Argentina. The country finished as runners-up in 1989 in Saudi Arabia and in 2005 in The Netherlands. Group A is headed by hosts Chile, and also has New Zealand, Japan and Egypt, while Group B entertains South Korea, Ukraine, Paraguay and Panama. Brazil heads Group C that also has Mexico, Morocco and Spain, while Group D includes Italy, Australia, Cuba and multiple winners Argentina. USA, New Caledonia, France and South Africa make up Group E.