Flamingoes eye trophy, say France will fall

By John Egbokhan
Nigeria’s Flamingoes have set their sights on winning the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan.

The Coach  Peter Dedevbo-tinkered side play France in a quarterfinal match on Thursday and believe that they have enough experience and talent to oust the Europeans from the age-grade tournament.

The Nigeria Team Group during the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup match between Nigeria and North Korea at the Hasley Crawford Stadium on September 5, 2010 in Port of Spain, Trinidad And Tobago. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths – FIFA/FIFA )

After drawing 1-1 with Canada in their opening Group A match, the Flamingoes combined pace and power throughout and showed their strengths in racking up an 11-0 win over the Azeris, the joint-highest of the group phase, before finishing off Colombia 3-0 in their final group game at the weekend.

Tournament’s leading scorer with six goals, Chinwendu Ihezuo, told fifa.com that the girls were raring to go against the French side at the Baku Stadium.

“We are ready for them and believe that we can beat them if we play as a unit and fight till the end. It is going to be a tough game but our coach has told us what to do against them”, said Ihezuo, who also has four assists in the tournament.

Also speaking, defender Sarah Nnodim, said that they team had put behind them the heartache of crashing in the quarterfinal stage in Trinidad and Tobago two years back and are ready to go all the way for the trophy in Azerbaijan

“We lost our quarter-final match in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010 because of a lack of concentration and experience. We’re ready for this tournament, though, and we feel we’re ready to win the trophy and that we’re capable of doing it,”  said Nnodim