Nigeria, Saudi battle for Group D top spot

Category: Sports Published on Saturday, 06 August 2011 06:00 Written by Orkula Shaagee Hits: 664

With everything going on well for both teams, any of them who win today’s encounter will top the group, while a draw will see the Nigerians, who have a superior goal difference over their today’s foes, go top of the group.

Nigeria has advanced to the Last 16 of the junior World Cup after a 5-2 thumping of Croatia on Wednesday, and an earlier 5-0 win over Guatemala in their first meeting.

After the match against Croatia, Nigeria Coach John Obuh said his Flying Eagles wish to finish top of Group D and remain at Armenia, which proved a veritable hunting ground for the current African champions.

“Armenia has been a very good hunting ground for us and so we will do everything to ensure we top our group and stay put in Armenia in the second round,” said Obuh.

Two-goal hero Uche Nwofor agreed with his coach that the Flying Eagles will aim to top their group.

“We want to beat Saudi Arabia even though we know that a draw will put us top of the group,” said Nwofor, who came off the bench to score twice against Croatia.

“We want to go all the way in Colombia and so we will work on getting the easier route in the knockout stage.

Last Wednesday’s result also proved the quality of the Nigerian team in front of goal, as Uche Nwofor, who missed the opening match against Guatemala, came from the bench to score two goals in the space of four minutes to give the scoreline an emphatic look.

But for the somewhat uncoordinated defence, the Flying Eagles would have boasted of the best squad at the tournament, with a parade of speedy and sharp shooting attackers and mobile midfield.

In the match against Saudi Arabia, Coach Obuh is expected to fortify his defence, anchored by Victoria Setubal of Portugal ace Terna Suswam and marshaled by Emmanuel Anyanwu and Kenneth Omeruo to arrest the pitfalls that resulted in two goals for Croatia.

On their part, the Saudis, who also boast of good attacking line, will be all out to curtail Nigeria’s attacking frail and also look out for loose balls counter attack to make hey.

In the match against Guatemala, the Saudis proved any of their players have the potentials of scoring goals, as their goals came from defenders, midfielder and attackers; which means that the Flying Eagles will have their hands full of the Coach Khalid Alkoroni boys, who are also eying the top spot to avoid winner of group C.

In what is sure to be a thrilling encounter, all eyes will be on Saudi goalkeeper Abdullah Al Sdairi and his stalwart back line that will deploy all arsenals in their defence to wade off Nigeria’s attacking forays.

Their defence is yet to concede a goal in the group stage but now come up against a rampant Nigeria attack, spearheaded by the gifted Ahmed Musa with able support from Olarenwaju Kayode and Uche Nwofor.