Flamingos head coach, Bankole Olowookere, has assured Nigerians that the team would bounce back after the first match defeat to Germany at the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Ghana.
The Nigerian girls fell to a 2-1 defeat against the Germans in their opening fixture in Goa on Tuesday.
The Flamingos led 1-0 at the break, courtesy of a superb free-kick from Miracle Usani.
Germany, however, took control of the game in the second half and scored twice through Svea Stold and Mara Alber.
The team will face New Zealand in their must-win second game in the competition tomorrow at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Margao.
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Despite the loss, the former coach is optimistic the team would qualify to the knockout stages of the tournament
“Even in this game we lost, we planned to win the game but in football, sometimes you win, draw or lose, but I can assure Nigerians that we are going to work hard and block the loopholes so we can win the next match and remain in the tournament.” Olowookere said after the Germany match in a short video interview posted on NFF TV.
Olowookere further explained that the Germans made things difficult for his players by not allowing them to play to their strength as the reason behind the team’s defeat.
He said:”At a time we were forced to play their pattern, we were supposed to play on the ground but as they started to lift the ball, we joined them in lifting the ball so we were unable to come back to our normal game. We should have maintained our style of play.”
“We had a complete loss of concentration.”