Amunike Eaglets are ready

Record FIFA U-17 winners Nigeria will be targeting a semi-final place and qualification to Chile when they get the CAF-U17 Niger 2015 Championship underway against the hosts on Sunday.

The Super Eaglets have won FIFA's junior tournament four times, in 1985, 1993, 2007 and 2013 and want to be at Chile 2015 to defend the title they last won at UAE 2013.

"Firstly, we are privileged to be here and are grateful for this opportunity. Our objective of coming here is to go to Chile and hopefully we will do our best to achieve that but in football, you cannot predict anything. But we must be optimistic and focused and know what we have to do on the field of play," Coach Emmanuel Amunike told cafonline.com.

"To go to the World Cup, we have to work hard. We must know how to play with the ball and without the ball and if players understand this and interpret it on the field of play, we will be looking forward to Chile," the ex-Super Eagles star and 1994 Nations Cup winner added.

He asserted that all eight finalists were capable of attaining good results and cautioned against taking any team lightly.

"All the teams here deserve respect and every team's objective is to go to Chile. So we have to work hard as everyone will do and hopefully, Africa will have the best teams to represent us in Chile," Amunike said noting that with the high temperatures in Niamey at this time of the year, his squad "was well conditioned" in Sokota (Northern Nigeria) which has similar weather conditions as well as their early arrival in the Nigerien capital.

The Eaglets face the hosts Niger in the Group A and tournament opener before other fixtures against Guinea and debutants Zambia.