Egypt U-23 to play Nigeria in May

ABUJA (GoPharaohs.com) - The Nigerian Football Association has targeted Egypt to be among its opponents for a series of friendlies planned ahead of the qualifiers for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, The Tide newspaper reported Sunday.

Sources cited said they couldn’t discuss potential opponents until matchups were finalized, but mentioned Egypt as a team that reciprocated interest in a friendly. The match would be slated for sometime in May.

Nigeria resumes its Olympic qualifying campaign in June before heading to Canada for the FIFA World Youth Championship in July.

Egypt was eliminated from both competitions, failing to advance from the group stages of the African Youth Championship - which double as qualifiers for the World Youth Championship - and losing to Cote d’Ivoire in the Olympic qualifiers.

The Young Pharaohs travel to Algiers in July for the All-Africa Games.