Defending champions, Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets will face Australian in the round of 16 of FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile on Wednesday.
Nigeria finished top of Group A with six points, while Australia finished third in Group C, africanFootball.com reports.
Winners of this game will advance to the quarterfinals to face the winners of another quarterfinal between Brazil and New Zealand.
Golden Eaglets coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, has said his players were not at their best in Friday’s FIFA U-17 World Cup game against Croatia.
But despite the loss, Nigeria finished top of the group with six points from three matches, while Croatia came second with five points, africanFootball.com reports.
Amuneke said his boys have to play more as a team going forward.
“My players wanted to win, but we were not the best tonight. The Croatians gave us many problems. They prevented us from playing our game and deserved to win,” he said.
“My players are very talented, but still have room for improvement collectively.”
Golden Eaglets duo of John Lazarus and David Enogela are eyeing their pound of flesh against Croatia U-17 team when both sides meet at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile Friday night.
The Eaglets lost 2-3 to Croatia at the 2015 Suwon International Youth championship staged in South Korea despite leading with few minutes to the end of the game.
Both teams meet again in the final Group A game of the U-17 World Cup at the Estadio Francisco Sanchez in Coquimbo, and the duo have vowed not to repeat same mistakes against the Europeans on Friday.
“We were unlucky against the Croatians in Suwon because we were leading them 2-1 until few minutes to the end of the match,” Goal quoted Lazarus as saying on the NFF website.
“The Croatians got a penalty to equalize and scored the winning goal later and that stopped us from winning the tournament.
“We won’t allow that to happen against us on Friday and we will work harder to win.”
Enogela on his own part said: “We saw in Suwon how physical the Croatians can play and I agree with Lazarus that they were lucky to beat us the last time.”
Golden Eaglets coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, has hailed his players after the team 5 – 1rout of hosts Chile in Wednesday morning FIFA U-17 World Cup game.
“It is true we were effective up front. But we also knew how to block their passing game, forcing them to play uncomfortably in the midfield,” allnigeriasoccer.com quoted Amuneke as saying to reporters.
“My players understood the transition game, that is when to attack and when to defend. We also prepared them mentally. It is not easy to play against the hosts.
“The Chileans are good, but today they lost to the best team. I believe they can qualify for the next round.”
Golden Eaglets coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, has warned his wards to expect a dogfight against hosts Chile in Tuesday’s FIFA U-17 World Cup match at the Sausalito Stadium in Vina del Mar.
The defending champions trained on Monday morning at the Enap Oil Company Training Centre in Con-Con district of the city, africanFootball.com reports.
“Tuesday’s match against Chile is a crucial game and you must expect a dog fight. But we must approach the match with discipline and responsibility. We must be ready to fight for 90 minutes,” africanFootball.com quoted Amuneke as saying to the players.
The reigning FIFA U-17 World champions, Nigeria, will go for outright victory in Saturday night’s opening match against the United States in Santiago, Chile.
The captain of the team, Kelechi Nwakali, said the players will strive for win against the US, hosts Chile and Croatia.
“We have set a target to win our first three matches and then take it from there,” the highly rated midfielder told africanFootball.com.
“We have worked hard and we believe God will crown our efforts.”
The U.S will likely feature Nigerian-born defender Matthew Olosunde, who faces a herculean task shutting out Eaglets’ attack led by the lethal Victor Osimhen.
The Nigeria lads, who finished fourth at the African Junior Championship in Niger, featured in an invitational tournament in South Korea that involved Brazil, Croatia and the host country.
The youngsters also trained for 10 days in next-door Argentina, where they won their warm-up matches against Argentina U-17 and Racing Club.
Golden Eaglets coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, said the team is determined to retain the FIFA U-17 World Cup at next month’s tournament in Chile.
Nigeria is the defending champions of the cadet World Cup and Amuneke believes the current generation can claim the trophy for a second successive time.
“Our target is to go there and retain the title we won two years ago. “It is normal that we expect to win it because we are defending champions.
“We have been training hard and preparing the boys for the tournament and gradually they are taking shape so we hope we will go there and win,” he told africanFootball.com.
Amuneke, a member of Nigeria’s coaching staff at the 2013 U-17 World Cup in United Arab Emirate, however admitted that his side will face some challenges along the way.
“It won’t be easy to be honest because the other teams that have qualified also only have one thing in mind, which is to win the title as well. That is why it won’t be easy,” Amuneke added.
Golden Eaglets’ Skipper, Kelechi Nwakali, who is on the radar of Manchester City, is leading a core of players picked by Nigeria in a provisional squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, AfricanFootball.com reports.
The 35-man squad was submitted to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) several days before the FIFA deadline of the end of the month.
There were initial fears Nwakali, younger brother of Chidiebere Nwakali who is already on the books of Manchester City, may not scrape through the latest MRI scan and so drop out of the World Cup, but that has now been quelled as he has maintained his initial status.
Many expects Nwakali to feature at the World Cup in October as English Premier League outfit Manchester City plan to again run the rule on the exciting midfielder after initial transfer talks earlier this year broke down.
Coach Manu Garba has dedicated Nigeria’s fourth FIFA U-17 World Cup victory to President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife.
Away from the battery of cameras and in the hallowed corridors of Al Jazira’s dressing room in Abu Dhabi, Manu said both President Jonathan and his wife more than anybody deserved praise for the feat he achieved with his team.
He recalled it was only President Jonathan that hosted the boys upon their return from the African U-17 Championship, where they came second.
“This trophy is for President Goodluck Jonathan, who had a strong belief in us despite the fact that we came second at the African championship,” MTNFootball.com quoted the Eaglets coach as saying after the team’s victory on Friday.
“We were really fired up when he hosted us after the African Championship and we are looking forward to meeting Mr. President again with the World Cup.”
Manu described President Jonathan as a very lucky man after the Golden Eaglets followed the footsteps of the Super Eagles for winning a major trophy in 2013.
The senior national team started the year with glorious outing at the African Nations Cup in South Africa and the Golden Eaglets World Cup win is more than an icing on the cake as 2013 drags to an end.
He revealed that his wife was the first person he called immediately after the final whistle of the match that saw his young guns dethrone Mexico as champions and entered the pantheon of world football as the first to win a record fourth world title.
“In fact, for the past four months I was not able to see my wife because of the nature of this job and I’m so happy that all the efforts we put into this work was not in vain,” he said.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank my wife for taking care of the home front.”
Manu also heaped praise on both Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor of Cross River State and Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, His Excellency Ibrahim Auwalu who rode on the team’s bus in company of Nigeria Football Federation’s President Aminu Maigari for a dinner reception hosted by the Nigeria Embassy in the UAE.
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… Wallop Mexico 3-0
Nigeria on Friday defeated Mexico 3-0 in the final of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in United Arab Emirates.
A ninth minute own goal by Erick Aguirre separated the two sides in a keenly contested first half.
Nigeria created several scoring changes, but a combination of hard luck and profligate shooting denied them more goals in the entertaining encounter.
Mexico came close twice too, but Nigeria’s Dele Alampasu rose to the occasion to keep the scoreline in favour of the Eaglets.
However, the Manu-Garba tutored youngsters changed gear in the second and duly put the Mexicans to the sword.
Playmaker Kelechi Iheanacho scored the second goal in the 56th minute tapping in after the Mexicans goalkeeper parried skipper Musa Muhammed’s fierce drive into his path.
Muhammed put the icing on the cake with a superb free kick in the 81st minute to send Nigerians on the stands into frenzy.
Nigeria had earlier lifted the cadets’ world Cup in 1985, 1993 and 2007.