Flamingoes do not deserve early knockout, says Nikyu

Bala Nkiyu, coach of Nigeria’s U17 women’s national team, believes his team does not deserve to return home early from the ongoing FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Jordan.

The 52-year-old stated this after the Flamingoes played out a frustrating goalless draw with the Young Lionesses of England, a result that means their destiny is no longer in their hands.

The Flamingoes had lost 1-0 to Brazil in their opening game and needed a win to keep their hope of advancing to the quarter finals burning, but in spite of a much better performance that yielded 32 attempts (five on target), they could not manage to score a goal.

“In the game of football, it is not playing well that gives you the trophy; it is the number of goals you are able to score,” Nkiyu said.

“We played well; we didn’t score. But we want to thank God because we didn’t lose and at the same time we are not happy.

“When you look at our team you will know that it’s not a team that is supposed to go out of the competition this early, so definitely we will work towards that and see that we win the next match.”

Nigeria will next play North Korea on October 8. The North Koreans, who are one of the most successful sides in the history of the tournament, defeated Brazil 1-0 in the other match played at the Prince Mohammed International Stadium on Tuesday to top Group C and ensure the qualification race will go down to the wire.

The Flamingoes are still bottom of the group with one point, and with a ‘minus one’ goal difference, they now need to beat North Korea by a two-goal margin and hope for a barren draw between England and Brazil, to go through.

Meanwhile, Nikyu explained the team’s failure to score despite having loads of attempts against England who seemed to be tiring out in the second half.

“Out of the whole team, we have just three people who have experience in the game while the others are just new,” he said.

“They are coming out for the first time in life; that is why they are a bit jittery when they get to the goal end. But having played Brazil and England, in the third match they should be able to believe that they can do it.”