7th November, 2013
Mexico’s U-17 team have been told in a clear terms that they should forget winning the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
In Friday’s final, Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets will be up against a Mexican team who they defeated 6-1 in the group stage of the World Cup taking place in the United Arab Emirate, UAE. Striker Kelechi Iheanacho was so sure of what he was saying when he told FIFA.com that winning the tournament is a bad dream for Mexico.
Iheanacho who was irresistible in the first game of Group F, scoring four times in a 6-1 demolition of the holders that seemed to indicate a title defence was little more than fantasy.
“I’m sure they won’t feel great about that first result. They’ll want to put pressure on us and we’ll have to be careful. We’ll respect them, but it’s hard to go against us when we’re playing our good football,” he said.
Football is good at offering second chances, but Iheanacho – near the top of the scorer’s charts with five of Nigeria’s 23 goals – has bad news for the revived Mexicans.
“We’ve got better since that opener. We’ve become closer and we’re going to chase them all over the field; we’re going to press them with our attackers and we won’t rest. We’ll go at them for 90 minutes until we’re sure the trophy is ours,” said the Imo State-born player.
In Abdullahi Alfa’s opinion, Mexico won’t escape being punished again. “We saw them play before our semi-final, and they looked strong against Argentina,” said the midfielder.
“We’re hoping for a repeat performance [of the group match]. In football it’s difficult to make predictions but, God willing, we’ll beat them again. Mexico can make all the changes they want, but it will be the same team we faced in the group stage,” Alfa boasted.