As the Nigeria U-17 national football team, the Golden Eaglets, go up against their Brazilian counterparts, A Selecao, on Sunday, one statistics jumps out at you – Victor Osimhen, with seven goals has scored more goals than the collective Brazil team – who have scored just five times in their four matches.
The two countries are the most successful sides at this category. Nigeria with four wins, followed by Brazil with three triumphs.
Head to head
Unbelievably, this is the first meeting between the two sides at this level.
The Journey
The two countries started their journey to the November 8 final on October 17 but while the Eaglets recorded a 2-0 win over the USA, Brazil lost 1-0 to South Korea. Three matches afterwards, they are going head to head to determine who will go ahead to play either Mexico or Ecuador in the semis.
Matches Nigeria Score Brazil Score vs. USA2 – 0vs. South Korea0 – 1vs. Chile5 – 1vs. England1 – 0vs. Croatia1 – 2vs. Guinea3 – 1vs. Australia6 – 0vs. New Zealand1 – 0
From the four matches that the Brazilians, we gleaned that:
They are very physical
In four matches, the Brazilians have been shown two red cards and five yellow cards. They can be pushed to making rash tackles especially when they are a bit frustrated. The Eaglets will be best advised to be physical as well but caution themselves to fight for only 50/50 balls.
They keep playing until the last second
In the four matches they have played, they have scored with virtually the last kick of the games. Their 1-0 victory over England was achieved from a direct free kick in the 90th minute whilst also the 1-0 victory over New Zealand was achieved with a penalty six minutes into added time. So unless the Eaglets are leading by 3-0 and upwards, they cannot afford to give the young Brazilians opportunity to come storming back.
They depend on set plays for goals
In the five goals they have scored, two have been from penalty kicks, including the 96th minute winner against New Zealand in the last round while another two have been from set plays near the opponents’ box. Leandro scored directly from a free kick against England and Arthur scored with a header from a free kick against Guinea.
They don’t like been dribbled
Their goalkeeper, Juliano, has had to produce 15 saves in the tournament, an indication that their backline is not the tightest. England, South Korea and Guinea did not capitalize on this apparent weakness because they did not go at the Brazilians consistently.
Coach Emmanuel Amuneke will be advised to instruct his two wide men – Samuel Chukwueze and Funsho Bamgboye – to take the ball and run at the Brazilian defenders and they can add long range shots to that set of instructions.
So the Eaglets must play like they did Chile…
Amuneke’s boys may have whitewashed Australia 6-0 in the last round but their most clinical display was the 5-1 victory over hosts, Chile, in the group stage. That game could have ended 10-0 to the Nigerians as they were relentless in pushing forward into dangerous attacking zones. They must show that template against a Brazilian side that likes to play in swathes and who play with a slow tempo.
Premium
0 comments:
Post a Comment