Head coach of Nigeria’s U17 girls, Bankole Oloowokere, is confident his team can overcome unbeaten Italy when both sides clash in the Round of 16 of the ongoing 2025 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup, www.aclsports.com reports.
The coach believes his team has what it takes to continue their journey in the tournament, stressing that no opponent is unbeatable.
“There’s nobody in football that is not beatable. Anybody can be beaten depending on how you prepare yourself,” Oloowokere began.
“Coming into the tournament, if I was told we wouldn’t get six points from nine in the group, I wouldn’t have believed it. Lo and behold, we struggled to even get three points. But now we are here against Italy, they haven’t lost any match, but there’s always a first time for everything. Against Nigeria will be their first time, and that will be the end of the road for them, not for us.”
The Flamingos’ coach insisted his players are determined to remain in the tournament, adding that the team has learned from their earlier setbacks.
“My girls are not ready to go back home yet. They still have something to achieve in this tournament, and we won’t return until that goal is achieved. We will try as much as possible to avoid the mistakes we made against Canada conceding early destabilized our plan. We managed the game against France until that late goal, and you can see that the girls are learning from time to time.
The most important thing is improvement from game to game. We’ve taken the positives from our losses and worked on them, and it’s beginning to yield results. This is the knockout stage; there’s no second chance. We just have to win and move into the next round.”
Meanwhile, team captain Shakirat Moshood and midfielder Fatimoh Shuaib also expressed strong belief in the team’s ability to deliver a big performance against the Italians.
Asked about the mood in camp and the team’s readiness, Moshood said:
“Yes, we have the confidence, and I know we can take on Italy. We’re going to come out in full force to win the match. It’s a must-win game, and we will win it by the grace of God.”
On how much confidence the win against Samoa gave the team, she added:
“It gave us 100 percent confidence. Nigeria should be ready, we are going to win. That’s our aim.”
Midfielder Shuaib echoed her captain’s optimism.
“Nigeria should be expecting a win from us because we are coming out with full force. We are not ready to go back to Nigeria empty-handed, we’re taking the cup home.”
Asked whether the Italians’ physical advantage worries them, she replied:
“No, it doesn’t scare us. Samoa were taller and bigger than us, yet we won. Size means nothing. We can do it again.”
Injury-wise, the Flamingos will be without Ayomide Abubakar, who has been ruled out of the match after sustaining a knee injury in the last group game against Samoa. She is currently under close medical observation.
The 2022 bronze medallists will look to reach another quarterfinal when they face Italy later tonight, being October 28. Kick-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. (Nigerian time).
