The Flying Eagles are huge favourites to win their seventh African Youth Championship title, when they engage hosts Senegal in the final of this year's edition at the 45, 000-capacity Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium in Dakar on Sunday (today).

Kick-off time is 8.30pm Nigerian time. Ghana and Mali will slug it out in the third-place match at 5.00pm Nigerian time at the same venue. All the four teams have sealed qualification for the U-20 World Cup in Chile later in the year.

Nigeria are record holders of the competition, having won it six times: 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2005 and 2011.

Nigeria and Senegal met in the opening game of the competition, with the Nigerians recording an emphatic 3-1 win over the hosts.

The Senegalese will be hoping to get their pound of flesh back from the Flying Eagles and they will be hoping that history repeats itself today.

The Flying Eagles have lost to host teams in two out of their eight previous AYC finals. They lost 1-0 to Ghana (1999) and Congo (2007) respectively in previous editions.

But the lure of a seventh title has been a major motivation for the young Nigerian side, who are made up mainly of players from the 2013 U-17 World Cup-winning Golden Eaglets.

And having broken the Ghana jinx in the semi-final, it seems there will be no stopping the Nigerian youngsters.

The Flying Eagles had lost on four occasions to the Black Satellites, and managed to triumph just once against their West African rivals: a 2-0 win in the 2011 edition before this year's tournament.

Coach Manu Garba will be depending on dangerous striker Taiwo Awoniyi, who scored twice in the first match against Senegal, to wreak havoc on the hosts once more.

Captain Musa Muhammed, has been inspirational at the tournament. The right-back is top scorer with four goals, three of them coming from penalty kicks.

However, ex-international, Garba Lawal, has called for caution, saying it would be a daunting task to defeat the hosts in the final.

He warned against complacency and noted that the Nigeria U-20 players have been fantastic and stand a good chance of being crowned African champions.

"It's going to be a difficult one. Playing the host nation in the final is not easy. It's going to be very difficult even though we beat them in the group stage. I believe these young players want to win the trophy," Lawal said.

"The Flying Eagles are capable of winning the trophy. But they should not underrate the Senegalese. The players and the coaches should remain focused throughout the match," he added.

To get to the final, Nigeria beat Congo 4-1 and drew 2-2 with Cote d'Ivoire before defeating archrivals Ghana 2-0 in the semifinal on Wednesday. Senegal also drew 2-2 with Cote d'Ivoire and beat Congo 4-3 in the group stage before getting past Mali 2-1 in the second semifinal on Thursday