Bankole Olowookere, the head coach of Nigeria’s U-17 women’s team, has urged the Flamingos to remain resilient and show character after their 1-0 defeat against France left their chances of qualifying for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in shambles.
The Flamingos, who had previously lost to Canada in their first game, put on a far more resolute performance in Morocco, but Maissa Fathallah of France scored the game-ending goal in the 81st minute.
Olowookere acknowledged that the outcome was disappointing, but he maintained that the team will not give up just yet. “Dude, it’s really disappointing,” he remarked. We simply need to see whether we can acquire something, as we stated. We’ll try to put in a lot of effort in the upcoming match and see if we can make it through the tournament.
However, the coach was encouraged by his team’s better performance and stated that they might still salvage their campaign with a resounding victory over Samoa in their last group encounter.
“We played a much better game than the one against Canada,” he remarked. We probably wouldn’t be in this predicament right now if we had fought Canada in this manner. However, it’s very regrettable that the late goal was added. To see if we can get something to stay in the competition, we’ll try to work on it.
Now that they have a four-goal deficit and no points, the Flamingos must win. Olowookere made it apparent that if his team is to have any chance of winning, they need to be more accurate in front of goal and more disciplined at the back.
“Three points may be sufficient to pass. Given that we now trail by four goals, our strategy versus Samoa is to first get the three points before working to increase the score and improve our position in light of the goals we have also given up. We’re going to work on that,” he stated.
Keep in mind that the Flamingos’ chances of making it to the knockout stage will only be maintained with a significant victory over Samoa.
