CHILE 2015: Golden Eaglets To Face Mexico In The Semis

The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria continue their effort to retain the FIFA U17 World Cup as they face the South American power-house, Mexico, at 12:00am Friday, November 6 (Nigerian Time).
Goals from Claudio Zamidio and Bryan Salazar helped Mexico proceed to the Semis as they beat a very entertaining Equador 2 – 0 in the quarter-finals.

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Mexico players celebrate a goal

The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria reached this stage of the tournament after they humiliated Brazil 3 – 0 in the quarter-finals.
The Nigerian team have scored 17 goals so far in the tournament with striker Osimhen getting 8 and hoping to meet and possibly surpass the goal record of Florent Sinama Pongolle of France who scored nine goals in the U-17 World Cup staged in Trinidad & Tobago in 2001.

Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Nwakali, Udochukwu Anumudu all congratulate eachother after the match against Brazil.

The Mexicans proceeded to the knockout stage having topped Group C with 7 points. The Latin Americans have so far, won 4 of their 5 games with their only draw against Australia in the group stage which ended 0 – 0.
The teams’ strength lies in their defence having scored 10 goals and conceding just two. The Eaglets need to watch out for Bryan Salazar and Venegas in the attack.
However, Coach Emmanuel Amunike had revealed that Nigeria’s thumping of Brazil will go a long way in boosting the confidence of his players.
“It’s not like we scored three goals and that was it. Before that, our side had 15 very good minutes, when they moved the ball around as we knew they could,” he started.

Amunike passes instruction to a player.

“You have to give credit to my kids, who were tranquil and kept their cool to deal with the Brazil pressure and then scored at the right time. For them, to beat Brazil is a big confidence boost. We still have a long way to the title, though,” he said.
A win for Nigeria against Mexico will expose the team to a possible defence of the title which they won 2 years ago.
The second semi-final match will see another African team, Mali which will slug it out with Belgium for a place in the finals.