TheCable

Manchester City forward, Kelechi Iheanacho, is not in awe over Brazil’s pedigree in FIFA U-20 World Cup championships, saying the Flying Eagles hope to beat them in New Zealand.

The African champions are in the same group with the five-time winners Brazil, North Korea and Hungary in the first round.

They play Brazil in their first match on Monday afternoon at the Taranaki Stadium and Iheanacho hopes to start the Flying Eagles’ campaign in the FIFA U-20 World Cup with a win.

“We hope to scale through in our first game against Brazil and go on from there,” he told Africanfootball.com.

“Yes, they have won five times, but that time is past. This is a new generation and a new competition. It will be determined in 90 minutes.

“We have to do well as a team, put in our best for us to beat them because they are also a very good team. And then take it on from there and face the other teams in our group.

“It will be a very good experience for me and the team as well. We hope we will do much better than we did with the U17s because we have grown up now and this is another level of football, so we have to perfect many things we did not do with the U17s and play more professionally.”

The MVP of the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup missed Flying Eagles’ three-week training tour of Germany, which he regrets.

“I would have loved to be in Germany with the team, but I encountered visa issues and coupled with my injury, it was not possible to come down.”