As Nigeria U20 men’s national football team, the Flying Eagles, set to engage their Italian counterparts at the ongoing FIFA U20 World Cup in Argentina tomorrow, a former junior international, Dimeji Lawal, has called on the boys to approach the game with the mindset to win and book a passage to the next stage.
Although Nigerians expected the Ladan Bosso boys to roll over debutants, Dominican Republic, in their last game, the Flying Eagles had to come from a goal down to win 2-1 and secured the three maximum points. The Italians were also 3-2 winners over the Junior Selecao of Brazil in the same group.
But Lawal, who was part of the U20 set up at Saudi ’89 called for caution saying there are no more minnows in football saying anything can happen as in as much as a match has not ended.
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“Let me tell you that there’s no more easy win in football again concerning the first game against the Dominican Republic. When you look around now there are no rollovers again. Look at Senegal the team we are shouting about in Africa, they were defeated in their first game.
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“That is the lesson about the tournament. I have played in that division (U20 World Cup) before. It is always tight at that stage because it is the next stage for you to cross to the national team.
“Our boys should not be expecting easy games. Having learnt from the first game they should know now that there won’t be any easy game and should take that bravery to the last game. You can’t say you are going to be a winner until you finish a game. Italy is just a name. I remember during my U20 days we played against Italy and I think we defeated them.
“I see no problem with our boys if they are brave enough and put up a good performance, they can take something away from that game. But for anybody to think that any of the group games will be easy is a lie. Even Nigeria will not be easy for any opponents to defeat.
That is just the truth. They should have a winning mindset and be brave about it and know that any team can be defeated.“
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