Although Amuneke admitted Australia would be a hard nut to crack, he assures Nigerians that they would see a different Golden Eaglets when they take on the Aussies.
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Nigeria has lost only one game so far at the on-going Federation Internationale de Football Association U-17 World Cup and Victor Osimhen is the top scorer with 7 goals already but Amuneke sounded evidently wary of the threat of Sunday’s quarter-final opponents; Brazil, and says the team will put in a few real work to get a result.
Osimhen set the ball rolling with his fifth of the tournament in the 22nd minute by bursting forward with pace and power on the left, before turning his defender and sliding the ball past goalkeeper Duro Dragicevic.
Nigeria’s U17s have won four of the fifteen U17 World Cups that have taken place since 1985, and have reached a record amount of finals having finished as runners-up on three occasions too. “At this stage, everybody that has qualified must be respected”, explained Amuneke.
While Nigeria have not lost a second round match in the championship’s history, Australia were beaten 4-0 by Uzbekistan in their last Round of 16 appearance at Mexico 2011. “They’re a good side we played them in SUWON”.
“We have to keep working hard and prepare our players physically and psychologically for the match (against Australia) especially after losing our last group match to Croatia”, he said.
“Tobechukwu is one of our key players but he has not played here; and immediately I scored the opening goal (against Australia), he was the only one on my mind”, said Osimhen who has notched up a total of 48 goals for Golden Eaglets after 77 matches in all competitions.
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While the early exchanges in the Round of 16 clash at the Estadio SausalitoVina Del Mar were initially balanced, the Eaglets required just three minutes to pull away.
