Sudan loss emotional because my family came to watch — Victor Osimhen

2015 Under-17 highest goal scorer, Victor Osimhen, spoke with Esther Egbe after the sad loss against Sudan in Lagos weekend U-20 Afcon qualifier.

HOW has the transition been from the Golden Eaglets that won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile to the Flying Eagles?
It has been great and personally, I’m still on cloud nine because I also had the opportunity of playing with the national U-23 team that won the AFCON in Senegal. I want to use this opportunity to thank the officials for giving me the opportunity of playing in that wonderful team. Our focus now is to secure qualification for the U-20 AFCON in Zambia.

How was the crucial second leg against Sudan?
Our preparations for the match went well, coming back from Sudan where we won 2-1 in the first leg. We had prepared physically and psychologically; and the coaches kept us focused for the return leg. We know it won’t be an easy match despite the fact that we won the first leg. It has been a great experience for us playing against Burundi in the previous round because they are a very good side in terms of their tactical awareness. The atmosphere in the camp has been very great and by the Grace of God, we were hoping to win in Lagos.

How did playing in Lagos affected your performance?
We were happy to play the second leg against Sudan in Lagos. On a personal level, I’m very excited because I have not had the opportunity of playing in a Nigeria shirt in front of my family and fans in Lagos. My family and friends would be there to support us; and it would be a great opportunity for us to show the Lagos fans the stuff we are made of. We know the Lagos crowd will be massive and they will support us. Unfortunately it ended on a bad note.

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What were your expectations?
I’m not good at predicting results of matches but we are confident we thought we were going to win. In this team, we have a lot of players who can score and it is not down to only me. We expected goals from the team. We felt sorry .because we didn’t make it.

How did you feel about the loss to Sudan?
Bad things do happen, how we respond to them defines our character and the quality of our lives, we can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of our loss or we can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift we have.

What advice do you have for your team mates?
I hereby urge you all my friends, my brothers, my teammates to stay strong, work hard next time, believe in yourself continue to strive for greatness and never stop serving God.