The Flamingos coach, Bankole Olowookere has bemoaned his sides’ lack of clinical precision in front of the goal as they prepare for the second leg of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup qualifying match against the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday in Benin City.
It will be recalled that Nigeria’s U17 girls ran riot around their hosts, DR Congo and earned a 3-0 victory in their second round, first leg encounter in Kinshasa on March 6.
The Flamingos who arrived in Benin City on Tuesday evening, with Olowookere insisting his girls will go all out for victory despite the massive advantage from the opening leg.
“There is no complacency in our camp. Every match must be approached with the mentality of gaining victory. We did well in Kinshasa but the girls wasted a number of scoring chances and we have been working on that. Clinical precision is key for any team that wants to win matches and tournaments,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the match officials for Saturday’s qualifying match are expected to arrive in Nigeria today.
Beninoise official Laurande Offin Kayode has been selected by the Confederation of African Football to be the referee for the match, alongside her compatriots Nafissatou Yekini Shitou (assistant referee 1), Djaria Bio Yacoubou (assistant referee 2) and Aurore Christelle Ligan (fourth official). The match commissioner is Christine Ziga from Ghana.
The encounter is one of the second round, the second leg of the African series for the championship to be hosted by India in the month of October.
The winner on aggregate after Saturday’s encounter will earn a place in the third round of the series, where the U17 girls of Egypt await, in the month of April. The final round of the qualifiers will be in May.
This year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals, the seventh edition since it was launched in New Zealand in 2008, will take place in India, 11th – 30th October.
Nigeria have missed only one edition of the tournament (the 2018 finals in Uruguay) but participated in 2008, 2010 (Trinidad & Tobago), 2012 (Azerbaijan), 2014 (Costa Rica) and 2016 (Jordan) championships. The 2020 finals, scheduled for India, were annulled by the global coronavirus pandemic.
