TheCable

Nigeria’s U17 boys, Golden Eaglets, on Tuesday arrived the Korea Republic to contest in the 4-Nation U19 Suwon Continental Cup against England, Iran and hosts, Korea.

The Eaglets on Monday departed the country via Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos on a seven hour non-stop flight aboard Qatar Airways to Hamad International Airport in Doha.

From Doha, they embarked on another nine-hour flight and landed at Incheon Airport in Seoul 5:14pm local time (9:15 am in Nigeria), with temperature oscillating between three and five degree Celsius.

In Seoul, the contingent was welcomed by the organisers as well as a representative from the Nigerian Embassy before traveling on a two-hour bus ride to Suwon City.

Players and officials are lodged at the Suwon High End Hotel.

Meanwhile, Manu Garba-led Golden Eaglets will open their account at the tournament on Wednesday against England at the Suwon World Cup Stadium – one of the stadia to host next year’s FIFA U20 World Cup.

England are in Korea with some British-Nigerians including Liverpool’s Ovie Ejaria who was omitted from the Eaglets’ 2013 FIFA World Cup-winning team as well as defender Fikayo Tomori, midfielder Joshua Onomah and forward Ademola Lookman, amongst others.

Ejaria made his Debut for Liverpool over the weekend, and has been referred to as the next Paul Pogba.

Hosts Korea kicked off the tournament on a winning note Tuesday evening with a 3-1 defeat of Iran, after playing England on Wednesday, the Golden Eaglets will trade tackles with Iran on Thursday and clash with host Korea Republic on Saturday.