After seeing off Uruguay and Honduras respectively in the last eight Nigeria, and Sweden will go head to head in the penultimate stage of the FIFA U 17 world cup on Tuesday in Dubai, in a re-enactment of their group F rivalry.
Tuesday’s match in the bustling commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates is Nigeria’s seventh at this level, while the Scandinavians on their part are enjoying a glorious debut appearance that has gone all the way to the semi-finals.
The first meeting between these two produced arguably the most nerve-racking encounter at the tournament. A thrilling 3-3 draw which saw the Europeans race to a two goal lead inside the opening ten minutes, profiting from a rare spell of poor defending and atrocious goalkeeping.
However the Eaglets dug deep and came back three times to restore parity and share the spoils of what turned out to be the team’s most testing game yet.
Since then so many things have changed in both sides. Garba’s charges have been without prolific Isaac Success, but his replacement Taiwo Awoniyi has proved more than a competent replacement, plundering three goals, including a brace in the quarter finals against Uruaguay since he came on for injured the Success coincidentally against Sweden.
The heterogenous Swedes too have been without their best midfielder.Isak Ssewankambo, played only 15 minutes of football in the Emirates before being hauled off to his club Chelsea, for treatment. But Larsson Roland’s team have forged on in his absence.
The Match:
Nigeria will go into the match as one of the two remaining unbeaten teams, the other being South Americans, Argentina.
Opponents Sweden will be looking to neutralize Nigeria’s attacking threat while taking whatever chances come their way, just as they did at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Dubai. Despite only qualifying from the group stage as one of the best-ranked third-placed teams, they went on to spring one of the heists of the tournament by knocking out Japan before overturning a deficit against Honduras to win 2-1.
Manu Garba will be banking on the ingenuity and trickery of Kelechi Iheanacho, plus the vision of Musa Yahaya, to provide services in around the final-third for the lanky Awoniyi.
One player Nigeria will be missing is midfield lynchpin, Akinjide Idowu through suspension, but Chidera Ezeh who lost his place in the team should take the place of the dumintive Idowu.
Sweden will likely retain the attacking pairing of Elias Andersson and Gustav Engvall, combining with the prolific Valmir Berisha up near the goal. And there’s the interesting sub-plot of Sweden’s Ali Suljic taking on his U-18 Chelsea team-mate Habib Makanjuola.
The lessons of the first meeting of the two where Sweden nearly defeated Nigeria is not lost on Manu Garba and the tactician says it was an eye opener: “We have learned a lot from the last time we played, and this time we have to be ready for them,”
The Swedish team is not replete with players with individual brilliance and ability to single handedly change the course of a game. But what they lack in skills and exceptional players, they more than make up for it in their organization and discipline.
The back four marshaled by Noah Sonko rarely loses its shape, with concentration at its optimum at all times. And while they do not create so many opportunities up front, they are not profligate in front of goal, majorly due to the finishing prowess of Valmir Berisha. His opportunistic brace in the first game readily comes to mind.
Gustav Engvall, the other half of their attacking duo is also a handful. His movement on and off the ball poses problems for defenders, often dragging them out of position for Berisha to profit.
Another source of worry for the Eaglets could be the guile of lanky winger, Citaku, who’s pretty hard to get off the ball and more often than not, he’s the main attacking outlet for the team.
He set up the equalizer against Honduras in their last game. After weaving past two Hondurans, he paved the way for Erdal Rakip to slot the ball into the net.
Having said that, the Eaglets must be patient and cautious in making forays into Sweden’s half. The tactics to knock the ball around, before hitting on the break through one of Yahaya and Iheanacho did the trick against Uruguay and it will be perfectly effective to out play Sweden.
As stated earlier Citaku is often employed as the Swedish attacking outlet. This means left back Okon will need to cut down on his forays upfront to keep a lid on him. And the calm Aliyu Abubakar, will be best suited to the left side of central defence to cover Okon, whenever he is caught out.
Upfront, Iheanacho, Yahaya and Awoniyi have shown perfect understanding. Although deploying Yahaya in a role on the left, where he can make more in-field incursions to find Awoniyi more often similar to what Iheanacho does on the right would be more devastating for the opponents.
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