Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets will on Tuesday face a total of eight youth players from Ajax Amsterdam of Holland in the round of 16 at this year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil, megasportsarena.com reports.
This follows the qualification of Holland as Nigeria’s next opponent at Brazil 2019, following the Dutch side’s stunning 4-0 victory against USA in their last group match, while the Eaglets lost 2-1 to Australia two days earlier.
Dramatically, Nigeria went through with their first two victories of the group, against Hungary and Ecuador, but it was a complete reversal for Holland, who lost their opening couple of games and only scaled through with their stunning victory against the Americans.
Eaglets’ coach, Manu Garba will now have to outline strategies on how to confront the might of Holland, who are star studded with the kids from Ajax’s youth sector and several others from other top clubs across Europe, and they are the continent’s current under-17 champions.
Garba’s wards secured their place in the last sixteen after topping Group B with six points from three games, but their defence will have to be tighter on Tuesday against the back-to-back European champions, who were one of the favorites heading into the tournament in Brazil.
Although the Dutch did not live up to rating with their performance in the group stage, in which they lost their first two games to Japan and Senegal, conceding six goals in total, they will fancy their chances against the ramshackle Eaglets, who also let in six goals, despite scoring eight in Group B play, then lost their last outing of the pool to Australia, for the first time in six fixtures.
The Eaglets will now brace up to stop eight Ajax players in the Dutch squad, which also has in central defence Ki-Jana Hoever, the youngest player ever to represent Liverpool in the English FA Cup, as well as a very compact midfield featuring Ian Maatsen, who debuted for Chelsea’s first team in September, and forward line that is adequately boosted by the presence of Manchester City winger, Jayden Braaf.
The winner of Tuesday’s round of 16 clash between Nigeria and Holland, which takes the Eaglets back to Estádio Olímpico in Goiânia, where they beat Hungary and Ecuador, before then losing to Australia in Brasilia, will face either Paraguay or Argentina in the last eight at Brazil 2019.
However, to get to that stage, the Nigerian teenagers will have to get past the Dutch back-four marshaled by Hoever, who is used to working miracles with Liverpool and has set out to perform another with Le Oranje, who are hitting a climax after a slow start to the competition.
The Oranje had conceded three goals in both of their previous games, but it would be unfair to overlook the contribution made in the same match by the Dutch defence, a backline that had been especially reconfigured for the occasion around one man: Ki-Jana Hoever.
It was, in fact, the first clean sheet kept by the reigning champions of Europe in the FIFA U-17 World Cup Brazil 2019 and, though the youngster admitted they have to give credit to the opposition for playing very well, he believes his team deserve better results.
Hoever told FIFA.com: “I’m struggling to make sense of those defeats. Against Japan, we started well and then let the match slip away from us. Then inexplicably, it happened to us again against Senegal, despite going ahead. We’ve put things right! We’d spoken before the match about how important it was not to concede. Wins are often built around a big defensive effort. So yes, the forwards did their job today, but so did the defenders!”