Nigeria’s U17 girls say they foresee an interesting encounter when they tackle the United States of America in Navi Mumbai in one of the quarter-finals matches of this year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals.
The Flamingos lost narrowly, 1-2, to another powerhouse of women’s football, Germany in their first match of the competition but have since overcome stage fright and were worthy 4-0 and 2-1 winners over New Zealand and Chile respectively.
Navi Mumbai, a planned ultra-modern city that is only 25 kilometers from the Indian capital city of Mumbai, is the venue for this titanic clash set for the Dr. DY Patil Stadium from 12 noon Nigeria time on Friday.
Nigeria, who would be aiming to break their quarterfinal jinx at this competition, is up against the USA for the first time at this level and this encounter is an opportunity for the West Africans to make history.
Having failed to reach the semi-finals in six previous editions, the Nigerians set out to achieve the impossible, ending the country’s 14-year wait for a last-four berth on their fourth quarterfinal appearance.
The Americans will hope to reach the semis for the first time since 2008 when they finished as runners-up at the inaugural edition in New Zealand.
Impossible is nothing, really. On 25th July 2010, in Augsburg, Nigeria’s U20 girls, Falconets came from behind to defeat the USA on penalties in one of the quarter-final matches of the 2010 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Germany. The match ended 1-1 and the Falconets went on to win 4-2 after a penalty shootout.
