Flying Eagles were 30% short against Hoffenheim, says coach

Flying Eagles coach, Manu Garba, is not entirely carried away with the 5-2 win over Hoffenheim U-23 side pointing out defensive frailty in his team.

The African champions won their first build-up match on Tuesday ahead the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which starts on May 30 in New Zealand.

But Garba was not 100 percent satisfied with his team.

“It was a good outing overall and I will score us about 70%,” he said.

“We started the game slowly, but we later picked up to play our normal game.

“But again we need to work on our defence by taking on more defensive responsibilities and our finishing has to be better as we lost several chances.

“All the same, we should also praise the Hoffenheim team, they are a team of professional players and they took the game to us very early on.”

The team’s next game will be on Friday in Nurnberg against the Nurnberg U-23 team. Their final warm-up match is against Freiburg U-23 team on May 19.

The team is due to fly out to New Zealand via Australia from Germany on May 23.

The Flying Eagles have been paired with Brazil, Hungary and South Korea in the Group E of the World Cup.

They will begin their campaign against Brazil on June 1.