Ahead of Wednesday’s clash between Nigeria and Argentina at the FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile, ex-international defender, Loveday Omoruyi has come up with a daring prediction that the Flying Eagles will defeat the highly favoured South Americans and qualify for the next round.
Sports247 reports that Wednesday’s round of 16 clash in Santiago is an exact replica of the last face-off between both sides at this level two years ago, which the Nigerian under-20 squad coached by Isah Ladan Bosso won 2-0 against the then hosts, despite scraping into the knock out stage as one of best third placed teams (which they repeated early this week).
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Dramatically, their clash in 2023 was one of an avenging outcome for the 2-1 spanking that Argentina, when they were captained by Lionel Messi, handed Nigeria during the final of the 2005 edition in Holland.
Exactly 25 years after that historic clash in Amsterdam, the old-time rivals are set to lock horns once again, and Omoruyi, who first shot to prominence as an under-20 national team player, is rooting for Coach Aliyu Zubairu’s side to pull off a major upset this midweek against the competition’s eternal favourites.
Omoruyi, who previously played for Julius Berger FC of Lagos and equally coached the once glamorous clubside, admitted that Zubairu’s team looked shaky during the group stage – as they lost to Norway, struggled to beat Saudi Arabia and needed a last minute penalty to draw 1-1 with Colombia in their last group fixture – but he opined that the Flying Eagles will rise to the occasion in the typical last ditch explosive Nigerian style.
He declared emphatically: “I have confidence that our boys are going to qualify. Sometimes, we like the fire brigade approach to win our matches. So, now it’s a game of tactics and determination.”
Omoruyi continued by suggesting that Zubairu and his players would have studied videos of Argentina’s recent matches in order to get basic ideas of how to overcome the latest threat from the South American side who won all their group matches at the ongoing championship and still have a record number of titles in the Youth Mundial’s history.
“I’m sure the coach has an idea of what the Argentinian team looks like. I’m sure the players too must have watched one or two clips of their games during the group stage of this tournament.
“So, I have this feeling that, at the end of the day, Nigeria will qualify. I am not scared about that. I believe that Nigeria will qualify for the next round,” Omoruyi stated affirmatively.
