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Coach Christopher Musa Danjuma has expressed confidence in his Nigeria U20 girls as the ever-present Falconets intensify preparations for this year’s FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup finals taking place in Colombia, 31st August – 22nd September.
The two-time silver medallists will contend with Germany, Venezuela and Korea Republic in Group D of the first tournament to welcome 24 teams, an increase from the 16 teams that featured at the last tournament in the Central American nation of Costa Rica, with their matches in the Colombian capital, Bogotá and Cali.
“The girls have been working very hard, and I am delighted at the level of improvement I have seen in the squad. There is greater understanding and ambition to accomplish. At an individual level, they continue to grow and show their determination to excel with focus on the larger picture.
“We must be very ready from the first blast of the referee’s whistle in Colombia, as there will not be many minutes to make mistakes and adjust against Korea Republic and Germany. Those two games will be key to our progress to the knockout rounds. We also cannot afford to under-rate Venezuela – they went through the qualifying rounds. The import is that we must bring our ‘A’ game to the party in all three matches.”
FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand superstar Salma Paralluelo of Spain, Brazil’s Marta, USA’s Megan Rapinoe and Nigeria’s perennial African Player of the Year Asisat Oshoala are among women football stars to have graced the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.
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Oshoala was the top scorer when the Falconets reached the final of the championship in Canada 10 years ago, losing narrowly to Germany.
With the field expanded to 24, Africa now has four flag-bearers (Nigeria, Morocco, Cameroon and Ghana this time). Matches will take place in four venues in three different cities (Bogotá, Medellín and Cali). There will be two venues in Bogotá – Estadio El Campín and Estadio El Techo. The Estadio Atanasio Girardot in Medellín and the Estadio Pascual Guerrero in Cali are the other venues.
The 13th African Games runners-up have won a string of friendly games in their ongoing first phase of final camping in Abuja, losing only to the Roma Academy U17 boys. They have had the upper hand against an FCT Selected side, Horvel U16 team and lately, Honey Badgers of Makurdi. They will fly out of the country in 17 days for a two-week final camping programme in Colombia, before their first match of the tournament against Korea Republic in Bogotá on the first day of September.
Other matches are against Germany (also inside the El Techo Stadium in Bogotá) on Wednesday, 4th September, and against Venezuela in Cali three days later.
Nigeria also reached the final of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in 2010, losing to host nation Germany. Four years later, the Falconets made the semi-finals in Japan.
