Nigeria U17 women’s national team goalkeeper Jane Ijirigho says the Flamingos are not ready to go home yet after their 2-1 victory over Mexico secured a place in the quarter-finals of the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, www.aclsports.com reports.
“Our mindset was that we’re not ready to go home yet. We want to stay here till the finals. I really want to thank the girls because they all came out with one mindset that we are not going home, and we actually did it,” she said.
Oluebube Umejiaku, who opened the scoring and was named Player of the Match, said she was delighted to receive the individual award after a performance she had worked towards.
“I feel very happy because I’ve been wanting this for a long time now. I’m so happy to get it. It was a tough one. We tried everything. They are very good. They are physical. With the help of the coaching crew and the instructions we followed, we just did everything right,” she said.
Defender Azeezat Oduntan admitted she was initially worried after Mexico pulled a goal back late in the game.
“I was scared at first because when the goal entered, we were like, ‘Ah, I didn’t know, are they not going to equalize this?’ But we just kept trying our best, and God crowned our efforts.”
Head coach Akeem Busari explained that his side adopted a mid-block approach after studying Mexico’s style of play, while highlighting concentration as an area for improvement.
“They play our own brand of style as well, very tough on the ball. They want to shoot from anywhere, and they are skilful as well. So we got to play on the mid-block to go track the ball away from them,” he said.
“We defend in units, but at that point in time, you could see that player was far off on the blind side, but nobody was really going there to touch her, and she was able to slide the ball in. I think it’s about concentration,” he added.
