The historic Benin City will once again host a female Nigerian team in a world cup qualifier and expectant Nigerians all over will be hoping for a similar outcome to the recent demolition of South African Under 20 women’s team in the same arena.
Coach Bala Nikyu has guaranteed that Nigeria’s U17 girls, Flamingos, will dish out similar treatment to the visiting Cameroon U17 girls when both teams clash in Benin City on Saturday in the first leg, final round of the African qualifiers for this year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals.
Make no mistake though, the young Cameroonian ladies would only be underestimated to the peril of the Nigerian handler.
Think about it, this is a team that overpowered their Algerian counterparts 4-0 away in the earlier round of the series. Whereas the young Nigerian ladies only managed to reach this stage via away goals rule against minnows Ethiopia.
Speaking on thenff,com, coach of Nigeira said: “We know for certain that it will be dangerous to take matters lightly with the Cameroonians. Apart from the rivalry between Nigeria and Cameroon on the football field, the Cameroonian girls sent strong signals with their performance against the Algerians.
However, we have prepared very well for them and victory is what we will go all out for on Saturday.”
The Baby Lionesses arrived in Lagos on Wednesday, and were flown to Benin City on Thursday evening aboard an Air Peace flight. They are staying at the Best Western Hotel in the Edo State capital.
The return leg will take place in Yaounde in a fortnight, with the winner on aggregate to pick one of Africa’s tickets to the 6th FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup taking place in Uruguay later this year.
Nigeria has participated in every edition of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup since it was launched in New Zealand in 2008, reaching the quarter –finals in Trinidad and Tobago (2010), Azerbaijan (2012) and Costa Rica (2014).