Nigeria’s Under-23 keeper, Dele Ajiboye said that a win against Morocco on Saturday in their opening game of the Africa Olympic qualifiers will determine how far they will go to snatch a ticket for the London 2012 Olympics.

The team led by coach Austin Eguaveon has a herculean task of qualifying for the Olympics after their female countersparts the Falcons, crashed out following a gale of misfortunes that hit Nigeria Football, bad results, which saw the Eagles failing to qualify for the Nations Cup 2012. This development put Eguaveon and his boys under pressure, but according to Ajioboye a good outing against Morocco will ease the tension.

“In any competition the first game is always important. Like every other team going for the competition we want to win our first game to make it easier for us in the remaining ones (in the group stage),” Ajiboye said.

He added that the boys will do their best to book a place at next year’s Olympic soccer event in London.

“The hope of the whole country now rests on us, and that is a big burden to carry after the senior team failed to qualify for the Nations Cup next year. We will give our best at the championship in Morocco but there is one thing I cannot guarantee right now.

It will be difficult to say we will win the title. “We don’t want to put ourselves under unnecessary pressure by saying we want to win the title. But winning a ticket to the Olympic Games will be a very good gift for our fans and an opportunity to have at least a team to watch next year,” Ajiboye said.

The Nigerian Under23s will also battle Algeria and Senegal in the group stage for one of the two semifinal places.