Mexico’s female cadet national team will enter Thursday’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup round of 16 clash with Nigeria buoyed by memories of how they won the competition’s bronze medal at the last edition in 2025.
Sports247 reports that, although Nigeria earlier pulled off the same feat at the 2022 edition in India, the Mexicans are flaunting a fresher achievement in the competition to boost their morale and focus for victory on Thursday.
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Incidentally, apart from being a battle between former bronze medalists of the Cadet Mundial, Thursday’s clash in the Rabat suburb of Salé will also involve two sides that lost their opening games of the ongoing championship but bounced back to reach the round of 16 in style.
Nigeria defeated Puerto Rico 2-0 and back-to-back defending champions, North Korea 3-1 after losing their opening game 2-1 against Poland, while Mexico romped back from a 2-0 defeat by Spain to also win their last tie 3-1 against Chile.
However, while both sides enter Thursday’s game with similar feats in the competition’s record books and on current form, Mexico will feel better placed for an encore, considering that their bronze medal was more recent and it was achieved in the same North African country – Morocco.
A preview of the potentially explosive first knockout fixture, as presented by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) communications department, stated in part, “Thursday’s encounter is a clash of former FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup bronze medallists.
“Nigeria picked up the bronze medals after a dramatic penalty-shootout win over Germany in the third-place match in India four years ago, while Mexico defeated Brazil 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw to win bronze medals at last year’s tournament also staged by Morocco.
“In India, the Flamingos led Germany 3-0 after 63 minutes, but Germany drew level before the final whistle. Nigeria won the shootout 3-2 at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai to attain the podium for the first time in the history of the competition.”
Sports247 reports further that it is now left to be seen which of the two former third placed sides will move ahead into the next stage of the ongoing women’s cadet competition, where a banana-peel clash with Germany appears lying in wait at tge quarter-finals stage early next week.
