Australia’s cadet national team playmaker, Caleb Watts has declared that he and his colleagues will be all out to shock Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets in their last group match at the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Friday, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although the Aussies lost their first match and romped from two down to force a 2-2 draw with Hungary in their second game, Watts says he strongly believes they can qualify for the round of 16 at Brazil 2019 by beating Nigeria in Brasilia.
This is also despite history being largely against his side, as the Eaglets demolished Australia 6-0 the last time both sides met at this stage back in 2015 in Chile, with the competition’s eventual top scorer, Victor Osimhen netting a hat-trick.
The Junior Socceroos had also lost 12 years earlier to the Eaglets, when they fell 2-0 to Nigeria on August 26, 1993 in Japan, as Nwankwo Kanu and Wilson Oruma both struck in the 51st and 68th minutes respectively in front of 5,732 spectators at Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium, Gifu City.
The Eaglets are already through to the knock out rounds, following their heroic come-from-behind 3-2 win against Ecuador on Tuesday, such that Watts is angling on the possibility that Manu Garba’s side will be relaxed for the last group match.
Garba too might opt to rest some of his key players and give others chances to get a feel of the competition in The Samba Nation, which Watts reckons could work in Australia’s favour, and he insists they stand a good chance of carrying the day against the five-time winners.
Making his thoughts known ahead of the 9pm kick-off at Estadio Bezerrao in the Gama district of Brasilia on Friday, Watts admitted his team need to beat Nigeria in order to reach the knockout stage but the buzzing midfielder, who plays for the youth team of Southampton in England, says that is exactly what they plan to do.
The Australia number 10, who netted a crucial equaliser as The Joeys stormed back from two goals down to claim their draw with Hungary on Tuesday, told www.socceroos.com.au: ”Nigeria, we got to get a win. We have had two games, we are confident we should have won but we have not been clinical enough. Hopefully we can put it together for Nigeria and come out with a win.”
