By Felix Onojaiyefe
Nigeria football federation (NFF) president Ibrahim Musa Gusau on Thursday urged the U17 Girls, Flamingos to get all three points from their next group opponents New Zealand in the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in India.
Gusau said the girls need to put their defeat to Germany behind and show up strong against New Zealand.
The Flamingos took the lead against European champions Germany on Tuesday but fell to two second-half goals that rendered their remaining encounters in the group phase, against New Zealand and Chile, a must-win.
“I spoke to the girls after the match against Germany to cheer them up, and I have spoken to them and their officials today for them to appreciate the enormity of the task before them, because the NFF and indeed, all Nigerians, want them to proceed to the knock-out stages. They must work hard at converting their opportunities. They must play to their strengths and do the best they can to emasculate the opposition.
“A good win against New Zealand will be a great confidence booster for the team going into the crunch encounter with Chile on Monday.”
Following their 1-2 defeat by Germany and New Zealand’s 1-3 loss to Chile, the Zealanders presently prop up group B. Nigeria is third, but could go to second place ahead of the final matches of the pool if they overpower New Zealand by two goals and Germany overcome Chile in the second match at the same Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The encounter between Nigeria and New Zealand will kick off Friday at 4.30 pm India time (12.30 pm Nigeria time).
