Sports
BANKOLE Olowookere, Head Coach of Nigeria’s U17 girls, has assured that the team is ready for Saturday’s Dominican Republic 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifying match against their counterparts from Burkina Faso.
Speaking to the media in Abuja on the qualifying matches, Olowookere said that the focus now should not be on the final round of the qualifiers against either Senegal or Liberia.
According to him, the Nigerian girls will need to navigate through this hurdle before the fixture against Senegal or Liberia.
“We have one hurdle to cross before the final hurdle, and that is what we are thinking about. Yes, we know it would be either Senegal or Liberia in the final round, but we have to first get past the roadblock mounted by Burkina Faso.
“We threw away a lot of opportunities in the first leg. If we had converted those chances, we would be sleeping easy and thinking this is a formality match, but we did not. On Saturday, we must convert our chances and that can only be done by good presence of mind and focus,” he said.
Olowookere led the Flamingos to third-place finish at the last edition of the global finals in India and it is only a victory on Saturday that will propel his girls to the final round fixture and the opportunity for a return to the World Cup.
Senegal thrashed Liberia 3-1 in the first leg of their fixture in Dakar and look poised to be the team waiting in that final round.
On Thursday, the Flamingos received motivation from the NFF Technical Director, Coach Augustine Eguavoen and the CEO of Enugu Rangers FC, Amobi Ezeaku, who were both at the team’s training session.
Eguavoen said: “I’m pleased with what I have seen and I can assure you that I will deliver my monetary gift to you after the match.”
On his part, Ezeaku, who also expressed delight with the display of the girls during the training and promised the team the sum of N1 million.
The match on Saturday will hold at the MKO Abiola National Stadium. The first leg last Saturday ended 1-1.
