U-17 W/Cup: ‘Eaglets Must Be Ready For Australia Test’

Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets coach Emmanuel Amuneke has admitted that  U17 World Cup Round of 16 opponents Australia will be a hard nut to crack today at the Estadio Sausalito in Vina Del Mar.
The Australians showed some remarkable tenacity to advance from the tournament’s supposed Group of Death (Group D) where they lost 4-1 to Germany, drew goalless with Mexico, before they edged past Argentina 2-1.
“We have been looking forward to the team we are going to play and on Sunday  we realized it would be Australia. At this stage, everybody that has qualified must be respected,” said Amuneke.
“They (Australia) are a very good side because we saw their match against Argentina and we have to respect them.”
While Nigeria have not lost a second round match in the championship’s history, Australia were beaten 4-0 by Uzbekistan in their last Round of 16 appearance at Mexico 2011.
Yet, Amuneke insisted his team must be at their best as Chile 2015 enters the knockout stages.
“We have to keep working hard and prepare our players physically and psychologically for the match (against Australia) especially after losing our last group match to Croatia,” he said.
“We have to let the players realise that the stage we are in now is crucial and it needs high level of concentration from them.
“It is a welcome development (Eaglets versus Australia) and before Wednesday(today) . We would evaluate our players and see their state of mind but hopefully, all of them would be ready to play”.
The Eaglets have,  been training in Vina Del Mar since arriving there at the weekend.