Nigeria's Golden Eaglets will
see their 2013 Fifa
Under-17 World Cup title
ambition come under huge
test from Uruguay in the
quarterfinal at the Sharjah
Stadium this Saturday.
The Uruguay-Nigeria clash
is one of the big games of
the quarterfinals at the
ongoing Under-17 World
Cup in the UAE.
The Nigerians go into this
quarterfinal game with an
enviable record of having
reached the last eight of the
Under-17 World Cup nine
times.
Uruguay unlike Nigeria have
reached the last eight twice
but have put up an
impressive run in the UAE
winning three matches and
scoring 14 goals.
Saturday's game between
the Nigerians and
Uruguayans will not be
lacking in quality after
brilliant displays from their
youngsters.
Manu Garba's team boast of
having scored 18 goals in
four matches with playmaker
Kelechi Iheanacho hitting
five of the goals, just one
behind tournament leading
scorer, Boschilia of Brazil.
But the Nigerians have
Musa Yahaya who has been
creating most of the goals
and have also scored four
so far in the absence of
their main striker, Success
Isaac, who is out injured.
However, Fabian Coito has
got a handful youngsters in
his squad capable of
causing an upset against
one of the title favourites.
Franco Acosta, Leandro
Otormin, Marcio Benitez and
Kevin Mendez form one of
the dangerous attacking
threats at the 2013
Under-17 World Cup.
Definitely this game is
balanced and could swing
either way of the pendulum.
But on paper the Nigerians
are favourites based on
their past records in the
tournament.
The Nigerians are planning
to keep to their tag of
favourites by going for their
usual attacking style of
football.
"We don't pretend we are
an attacking team though
there are still few errors
but we are going to correct
them as we go further we
progress," Nigeria head
coach, Manu Garba, said.