Babalola Oluwatomiwa
Social Member
Head coach of Nigeria's U-20 Women's national team, Peter Dedevbo has expressed happiness after his side recorded a quarter-final victory over New Zealand at the ongoing World Cup in Canada.
The Falconets mauled New Zealand 4-1 in their quarterfinal match on Sunday to secure a semifinal berth against Korea DPR.
It is the third consecutive victory for the Nigerian team at the competition and they will be hoping to go another step further and reach the finals
Dedevbo, who led the U17 women national teams twice to the FIFA Women’s U17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago 2010 and Azerbaijan in 2012, crashed out at the quarter-finals stage on both occasions.
The Nigerian coach was seen rolling on the pitch after the game,and he revealed that qualify for his first semifinals meant so much to him.
"It means a lot to me - after taking the U17 to the quarter-final twice - people saw it as if I was jinxed not to pass the quarter-final stages at a World Cup competition. I'm happy to have finally broke the jinx," Dedevbo told Goal.
"In our previous matches we created chances but failed to convert them. So the emphasis was on how many goals can we score during our training session before the game.
"When we won our last group match to qualify to the quarter-final, the confidence in the team began to improve. And winning today the confidence is high, the character is high and everything about the team is high at the moment," he excitedly maintained.
Nigeria have now qualified for its third consecutive semifinal at the under 20 Women's World Cup,and Dedevbo said that they will be approaching the game with confidence.
"We are going into the semi-final with so much confidence within us. We are resting tomorrow morning and begin to plan for our game against the Korea DPR [on Monday] evening.
"I appreciate sport-loving Nigerians for their support and prayers back home and I still want them to keep praying and supporting the Falconets," he added.
The Falconets mauled New Zealand 4-1 in their quarterfinal match on Sunday to secure a semifinal berth against Korea DPR.
It is the third consecutive victory for the Nigerian team at the competition and they will be hoping to go another step further and reach the finals
Dedevbo, who led the U17 women national teams twice to the FIFA Women’s U17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago 2010 and Azerbaijan in 2012, crashed out at the quarter-finals stage on both occasions.
The Nigerian coach was seen rolling on the pitch after the game,and he revealed that qualify for his first semifinals meant so much to him.
"It means a lot to me - after taking the U17 to the quarter-final twice - people saw it as if I was jinxed not to pass the quarter-final stages at a World Cup competition. I'm happy to have finally broke the jinx," Dedevbo told Goal.
"In our previous matches we created chances but failed to convert them. So the emphasis was on how many goals can we score during our training session before the game.
"When we won our last group match to qualify to the quarter-final, the confidence in the team began to improve. And winning today the confidence is high, the character is high and everything about the team is high at the moment," he excitedly maintained.
Nigeria have now qualified for its third consecutive semifinal at the under 20 Women's World Cup,and Dedevbo said that they will be approaching the game with confidence.
"We are going into the semi-final with so much confidence within us. We are resting tomorrow morning and begin to plan for our game against the Korea DPR [on Monday] evening.
"I appreciate sport-loving Nigerians for their support and prayers back home and I still want them to keep praying and supporting the Falconets," he added.
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