Nigeria's Golden Eaglets will today tuesday enter their semi-final match against Sweden as favourites so as to maintain their unbeaten run in the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013. Alongside Argentina, the African giants are the only team to progress this far without a loss to their name. The Golden Eaglets dominated Group F before knocking out both Iran and Uruguay, and though their draw with Sweden could be seen as a slight stumble, their impressive displays of footballing prowess have drawn praise from opponents. Brazil coach Alexandre Gallo described Nigeria as, “a strong side who play a similar game to the Brazilians. Their style is what we call football!” Opponents Sweden will be looking to neutralize Nigeria’s attacking threat while taking whatever chances come their way, just as they did at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Dubai. Despite only qualifying from the group stage as one of the best-ranked third-placed teams, they went on to spring one of the heists of the tournament by knocking out Japan before overturning a deficit against Honduras to win 2-1.They join the Netherlands, Turkey and Switzerland as one of only four European teams to ever reach the U-17 World Cup semi-finals on debut. But it is Switzerland, the side that won the title on their debut, that the Swedes will be looking to emulate.Nigeria’s offensive flair should be on full display. Coach Manu Garba has selected the goal-hungry duo of Kelechi Iheanacho and Musa Yahaya alongside Taiwo Awoniyi, who proved himself an excellent replacement for the injured Success Isaac when he knocked in a brace against Uruguay in the quarter-finals.Sweden will retain the front pairing of Elias Andersson and Gustav Engvall, combining with the prolific Valmir Berisha up near the goal. An interesting sub-plot of this match will see Sweden’s Ali Suljic take on his U-18 Chelsea team-mate Habib Makanjuola.
The kick-off time for the match is 5.00pm Nigerian time.
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