President of the Nigerian Football Federation Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau on Thursday challenged the U17 girls to go all out for three points when they take to the pitch against their New Zealand counterparts today. Encouraging them to put behind the loss to Germany in the opening match day and forge forward with confidence.
In a statement, he said “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.” Defeat to the Germans has made the remaining two matches in the group phase a must win for the flamingos if they are to qualify to the knockout stage of the competition.
New Zealand hosted the very first edition of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in 2008. Unfortunately, they were eliminated in the group stage which incidentally was the same fate that befell the Nigerian contingent that year. Nigeria has participated in all editions of the U17 women’s world cup except the 2018 finals in Uruguay where New Zealand took the bronze medal in that edition. The encounter between Nigeria and New Zealand will kick off at 4.30pm India time (12.30pm Nigeria time)
