Nigeria’s U-17 national team ,the Golden Eaglets will face the Australia U-17 side tomorrow in the second round of the FIFA U-17 World Cup holding in Chile.
The Golden Eaglets topped Group A with six points from three matches while Australia emerged from Group C as third best with four points from three games and both sides will lock horns to see who qualifies for the quarter final.
Nigeria has won the cadet World Cup a record four times while Australia have managed a runners-up spot earned in 1999 in New Zealand when they were beaten on penalties by Brazil.
The Eaglets beat Chile and USA 5-1 and 2-0 respectively before losing to Croatia 2-1 in the last group match after they had sealed top spot and a place in the Round of 16 while Australia had to wait till all matches were concluded before booking a place in the second round.
The junior Socceroos opened their Chile 2015 account with a 4-1 loss to Germany. They managed to hold Mexico to a goalless draw before beating Argentina 2-1 to advance to the next round.
A former handler of the Golden Eaglets side, Alphonsus Dike has told Emmanuel Amuneke’s team to forget about their first round matches and concentrate on their next opponents solely if they are to equal the record set by their predecessors in 2013 in the UAE.
“Australia is their next opponent and they must be focused on them alone. It won’t be easy at all because they will also be eager to qualify too,” Dike told Goal.
“The coaches should do their work and work on the psychology of the players. They should make them to forget about their last loss because all their energies and thoughts should be on Australia tie alone.”
The match will take place at midnight on Wednesday