U-17 W/Cup: Flamingoes Ready For France Challenge

Flamingoes’ Aminat Yakubu (left) against Diana Duate of Colombia during Nigeria’s group stage match in Baku. Nigeria will confront France tomorrow for the semi final ticket

Nigeria Under-17 women’s coach Peter Dedevbo has said that
taking chances created will be key for his girls as they get ready to meet
France.

The Flamingoes play the Europeans in the quarterfinal of the
ongoing Fifa Under-17 Wommen’s World Cup in Azerbaijan tomorrow.

“This is the knockout stage and my girls understand the
technicalities when we take on France. I want my girls to convert all the
chances they create as this will be crucial. From this stage onwards we will
play each match as it comes, one game at a time,” Dedevbo said.

Nigeria were eliminated at the same stage last time out, but
Dedevbo said his team has come a long way in the two years since

“After the quarterfinal ouster in Trinidad and Tobago in
2010, this team has made tremendous progress and I’m particularly happy with my
attackers’ performance who I believe will continue to give us the goals.”

Scorer of the brace against Colombia, Halimat Ayinde,  was also in the 2010 squad, and assured that
the hoodoo of that year has since been buried and the team is looking to get to
the finals and win the cup.

“I am happy I scored those two goals against Colombia for my
team. It’s every attackers delight to score goals. I’m equally grateful to God
for helping me score the goals.

“I am not afraid of France-yes we got eliminated at the
quarterfinal stage at the last World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago but I believe
in myself and the girls that we will make it into the semifinals this time. We
have come a long way and we are not going to look back,” said Ayinde.

Team captain, Victoria Aidelomon was also part of the squad
two years ago and said that she was excited to have made it to the
quarterfinals again but believes her team will qualify for the semis at the
expense of France.

“I’m excited we have once again qualified for the quarterfinals. What happened two years ago is now history because I believe France are beatable. By the grace of God and the prayers and support of Nigerians both here and back home, I believe we will beat France,” Aidelomon assured.

The team resumed training on Sunday afternoon after resting
in the morning.

They had beaten Azerbaijan and Colombia 11-0 and 3-0
respexcitvely after playing 1-1 with Canada in their opening match of the  campaign.

Tomorrow’s match is scheduled to kick off at 4 pm Nigeria
time.