Coach Abdullahi comfortable with Falconets’ World Cup group
AFalconets assistant coach, Mansur Abdullahi has said he is comfortable with Thursday’s draw which put Nigeria in the same group with Germany, China and Haiti for the 2018 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.
The Nigerian U20 team had defeated South Africa 8-0 on aggregate to qualify for their ninth straight championship.
France will host the 2018 edition beginning from August and the Falconets will be aiming for their first trophy.
Abdullahi told Daily Trust on Saturday that the group is as difficult as any other group in the World Cup.
He, however, said in as much as he respects all the teams in the group, he is not in doubt about the chances of the Falconets progressing from there.
Abdullahi said the desire of everyone in the Falconets is to go to France and improve on the last outing of the team.
The former Super Falcons assistant coach also said the Falconets coaches will work on making the team stronger before the commencement of the World Cup.
“I have seen the group and I am comfortable with it. No team that has qualified for the World Cup is cheap.
“It is a tough group but I believe in our ability to make progress. To become champions, we must be ready to face the best teams at any stage of the competition.
“What we are going to do is to beef the present squad and make it more formidable. There is no perfect team so we keep working on the team,” he said.
Abdullahi therefore called on the Nigeria Football Federation to organise friendly matches for them to prepare adequately for the World Cup.
He said it is only when the Falconets play test matches that some of the weak areas in the team would be strengthened.
“What we need urgently is friendly matches to test run the team we would like to present at the World Cup.
“We have enjoyed the support of the NFF so far but they can still do more in this area,” he advised.