Nigeria will ambush New Zealand today to get the 2025 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup campaign underway.
The African representative, Flamingos Nigeria will take on Oceania representatives New Zealand by 9 pm Nigeria time at the Cibao Stadium Dominican Republic in a group A encounter.
Both countries met at the group stage of the 2022 edition and the Nigeria team whipped their New Zealand counterparts 4-0.
The coach of the Nigeria team, Olowookere Bankole is confident and sure her girls will deliver the goods, without underrating their opponents but because they are prepared for the task beyond the first game .
“I have confidence in the girls to deliver the goods at this competition. We have come well-prepared to do even better than we did in India”.
Nigeria won the bronze medal at the last edition and booked their passage in a convincing fashion dispatched their opponents with ease with Chidi Harmony emerging as the star of the team, scoring 12 goals in the six matches played during the African leg of the world cup qualifiers and are favoured to win later tonight.
New Zealand, the Young Ferns, is coached by coach Alana Gunn.
She is well-known in the New Zealand football scene, having led the Canterbury United Pride for six seasons in New Zealand’s National League, winning three league titles and bringing through a number of Football Ferns such as Kate Taylor and Gabi Rennie.
They qualified last year thanks to a late goal from forward Katie Pugh to secure a narrow 1-0 win over Fiji in the final in Tahiti.
The other match slated for the day is Spain taking on the USA by 9 pm kick off time.
