{"id":17847,"date":"2019-11-11T15:31:32","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T15:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=17847"},"modified":"2019-11-11T15:31:32","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T15:31:32","slug":"boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game","title":{"rendered":"Boost for Nigeria as Awoniyi and Azubuike arrive for Zambia game"},"content":{"rendered":"
The duo has been released by the clubs and have teamed up with Imama Amapakabo\u2019s side ahead of Tuesday’s crucial game Istanbul Basaksehir<\/a>\u00a0midfielder Okechukwu Azubuike and\u00a0Mainz<\/a>\u00a0striker Taiwo Awoniyi have joined\u00a0Nigeria<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, ahead of their game against Zambia.<\/div>\n
\n

The Olympic Eagles will battle the Southern African country in their second group match at the Al Salam Stadium on Tuesday, after suffering a 1-0 loss to\u00a0Ivory Coast<\/a>\u00a0in the Group B opener.<\/p>\n

Azubuike and Awoniyi were released late by their clubs due to involvement in the Turkish Super Lig and German\u00a0Bundesliga<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n

Their arrival excited Amapakabo, who is aiming to go all out against Zambia to revive Nigeria’s hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals of the tournament and boost their chances of making it to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy we now have Awoniyi and our captain, Azubuike. They are integral to the team and were influential in our qualifying matches,” Amapakabo said.<\/p>\n

“We will throw everything into the game against Zambia because we have left ourselves no choice at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have the team to not only overcome Zambia but go all the way in the tournament.<\/p>\n

“We stumbled against the Ivorians but we have learnt from that and we now look forward to rescuing our campaign against the Zambians and South Africans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zambia, on their part, have also received two boosts with the imminent arrival of KV Oostende forward Fashion Sakala and RB Salzburg’s Patson Daka, who has set the Austrian Bundesliga alight with 12 goals in 13 matches this season.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The duo has been released by the clubs and have teamed up with Imama Amapakabo\u2019s side ahead of Tuesday’s crucial game Istanbul Basaksehir\u00a0midfielder Okechukwu Azubuike and\u00a0Mainz\u00a0striker Taiwo Awoniyi have joined\u00a0Nigeria\u00a0at the\u00a0Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, ahead of their game against Zambia. The Olympic Eagles will battle the Southern African country in their second group match […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":17849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[174,1047,115],"class_list":["post-17847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-football-in-nigeria","tag-nigeria-football-league","tag-nigerian-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nBoost for Nigeria as Awoniyi and Azubuike arrive for Zambia game - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The duo has been released by the clubs and have teamed up with Imama Amapakabo\u2019s side ahead of Tuesday's crucial game of them...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boost for Nigeria as Awoniyi and Azubuike arrive for Zambia game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The duo has been released by the clubs and have teamed up with Imama Amapakabo\u2019s side ahead of Tuesday's crucial game of them...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-11T15:31:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/2019\/11\/taiwo-awoniyi-mouscron-2019_1cie8iq4kfhrd1hqltjr5m7ly5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"Boost for Nigeria as Awoniyi and Azubuike arrive for Zambia game\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-11T15:31:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game\"},\"wordCount\":280,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/2019\/11\/taiwo-awoniyi-mouscron-2019_1cie8iq4kfhrd1hqltjr5m7ly5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Football in Nigeria\",\"Nigeria football league\",\"Nigerian sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/boost-for-nigeria-as-awoniyi-and-azubuike-arrive-for-zambia-game\",\"name\":\"Boost for Nigeria as Awoniyi and Azubuike arrive for Zambia game - 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