When the U20 Africa Cup of Nations tournament kick-started for Nigeria with a defeat to Senegal many asked questions about the ability of the team.

Question marks over whether the Flying Eagles will clinch qualification for the FIFA U20 World Cup was on the front burner.

But in time, Ladan Bosso dragged his team to the semi-finals and ensured Nigeria was among the four African nations to play at the World Cup.

However looking at the draws for the FIFA U20 World Cup, one might begin to worry again as Nigeria has been handed a very difficult group to navigate.

The flying Eagles have been placed in group D alongside Brazil, Italy and Dominican Republic.

While Nigeria would not necessarily worry about Dominican Republic, Italy and Brazil are overwhelming favorites to make it out of the group, but the Flying Eagles may fancy their chances – to qualify as the best third-placed team.

Five-time winners, Brazil, have a young and exciting squad led by Chelsea-bound Andrey Santos as well as Vitor Roque whose signature is hotly contested for by some of Europe’s top sides.

In addition, the Brazilians are in great form and have only lost twice – to Chile – and have gone 18 matches unbeaten since those defeats.

Italy on the other hand are a compact but effective team, they also boast of some exciting talents in European football right now Alessandro Fontanarosa and Mattia Zanotti are registered with Inter, while Claudio Cassano and Cristian Volpato are with AS Roma.

Also 80 percent of their stars are on the books of teams in the Italian top-flight.

Nigeria can give themselves a head start as they play Dominican Republic first; a victory against them means the Flying Eagles will just need to get results against either Italy or Brazil to advance to the next round.

The team has shown they know how to defend, but let’s also see if they can attack too, it’s all up to Ladan Bosso and his boys now.