Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets’ captain, Samson Tijani has pledged that he and his colleagues will regain their fighting spirit in their next match at the FIFA U-17 World Cup, as he admits they must come out smoking in the round of 16 clash with Holland, megasportsarena.com reports.
Heading into Tuesday’s first knock-out match at Brazil 2019, Tijani admitted the Eaglets slipped up against Australia, hence the 2-1 loss they suffered in their last group game, but promised that they will be back to their fiery form on Tuesday.
Aside the loss to Australia, Nigerian football fans and analysts are still critical of the Eaglets’ form so far in the Samba Nation, as they even appeared to struggle in their first two matches of the ongoing Cadet Mundial, when they had to come from behind against both Hungary and Ecuador, who they beat 4-2 and 3-2 respectively.
Two matches, two comebacks wins, four deficits were the summaries in those first two matches, as the Eaglets were staring at defeat with less than fifteen minutes to go on both occasions but, in each, the fourth placed team at the African U-17 Cup of Nations produced stirring revivals.
Against Hungary, Tijani was the primary difference-maker, netting Nigeria’s first and last goals of the victory, the latter coming via free-kick from 30 yards, while Ibrahim Sa’id’s hat-trick made the difference against Ecuador, and the skipper has now admitted it was mostly due to their fighting spirit, which he says they will reenact on Tuesday.
For the round of 16, the Eaglets now have a formidable opponent, one that pulled off a different kind of comeback to reach this stage, as Holland lost their first two matches and picked a 1-6 log in deficit, yet they also showed they are down but far from out, as the European champions hit USA 4-0 in their final group fixture to burst through.
The Dutch will now be coming off their best performance of the tournament when they meet Nigeria on Tuesday and, though many critics still remember how woeful the Eaglets were when they lost to Australia on Friday, Tiijani stressed that their fighting acumen remains unshaken.
Tijani told FIFA.com: “I know this team and these players possess the effort to keep fighting back, no matter the situation. We don’t relent. We don’t give up easily. We force ourselves to keep pushing until we get the win. It gives us more confidence to push harder, knowing what our country has worked for and that they are behind us. So, we’ll keep pushing.”
