By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women Football Journalist
Celebration Time. ..Flamingos players celebrating one of their goals in the first leg tie against Egypt in Abuja
Determined to consolidate on the first leg 4-0 win over Egypt’s U-17 women’s football team, Head Coach of Nigeria’s junior women’s outfit, Flamingos, Oloowokere Bankole has said that his side will not leave anything to chance when both teams clash in the return leg tie in Cairo next weekend.
In exclusive interview with Prompt News in Abuja at the weekend, Bankole revealed that the team has intensified its training to correct the lapses found in the team during the first leg encounter at Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja last Sunday.
Said he: “We (Flamingos) returned to training 24 hours after we defeated our Egyptian opponents four nil on Sunday. We know the match is not over hence we returned to training immediately to correct some lapses we identified in our team in the first leg”.
On Duty…Flamingos Head Coach Oloowokere Bankole giving his girls tactical tips on howvto beat Egypt in Cairo next week.
Speaking further on the crucial away match, Bankole said: “We are going to approach the return leg match in Egypt as if we did not win the first leg in Abuja. We are aware that the Egyptians will try to bounce back at home but we are not going to allow them have a field day”.
He hinted that he will this week change the team’s training time and venue from Goal Project to the mainbowl pitch of Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja for the players to experience playing under the floodlights.
“We are doing everything humanly possible to win the return leg away from home including tweaking our match tactics and training schedules to counter anything the Egyptians will bring on the match day”, Bankole stated.
Meanwhile, should Nigeria top Egypt over two legs to qualify for the final round of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup African qualifiers as expected, the next opponents will be either South Africa or Ethiopia which has 3 goals advantage after beating the South Africans at home in the first leg.
Winner between Nigeria/Egypt and South Africa/Ethiopia over two legs will qualify to represent Africa alongside two other countries in India this Summer.
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