Coach Christopher Danjuma has expressed confidence in his Nigeria U20 girls as the real race for berths at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica 2022 begins for Nigeria in Douala on Saturday, with a first round, first leg encounter against the U20 girls of Central African Republic.
A contingent
including 23 players of the Falconets flew into the Cameroonian city in the
early hours of Thursday, and trained on Thursday ahead of today’s official
training at the Stade Japoma de Douala – the match venue.
Nigeria’s
U20 girls have appeared at every edition of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup
since it started as FIFA U19 Women’s World Cup in Canada in 2002, making it to
Thailand 2004, Russia 2006, Chile 2008, Germany 2010, Japan 2012, Canada 2014,
Papua New Guinea 2016 and France 2018. The 2020 edition, planned by FIFA to be
co-hosted by Costa Rica and Panama, was scuttled by the global coronavirus
pandemic.
Costa Rica
will now be sole host nation for the 10th edition in August 2022.
Saturday’s
clash was enabled by the withdrawal of Equatorial Guinea’s U20girls from the
race, shooting the CAR girls straight to the first round against the highly –successful
Falconets of Nigeria.
“We are here
to earn a good result that will make the second leg a bit easier for us. We
will go all out for victory against our opponents who are also playing on away
ground,” said Danjuma.
Central
African Republic are playing their home matches in Cameroon as no venue in
their country is deemed fit for international matches.
The first
round, first leg clash will kick off at 3pm Cameroon time, with the return leg
in Nigeria on Friday, 8th October.
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