Mohammed Abdullah Mazda, who led Sudan to a 4-3 defeat of the Flying Eagles at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, on Saturday, has revealed that he told his wards to expect an overconfident opponent before the match.

Sudan eliminated Nigeria from the race to the Zambia 2017 African U-20 Championship on the away goal rule even though the tie ended 5-5 on aggregate. Nigeria won the first leg 2-1 in Khartoum.

Extolling his team’s fighting spirit and doggedness despite playing one man down for a better part of the game, Mazda said his side never stopped believing they would qualify, especially when they read about the events in the Nigerian camp.

“Our performance showed that in football anything can happen. Nigeria believed they had settled the game after the first leg, but we showed them the other side of football.“My boys wanted to win more than Nigeria and that is why we are going to Zambia,” he said.