Garba out to beat Sweden

Football | Fifa U17 World Cup

Manu Garba © NFF

 

Head coach of Nigeria's Under-17 national team, Manu Garba, has declared that they "have no fear about Sweden" ahead of Tuesday's semifinal clash in Dubai at the ongoing Fifa Under-17 World Cup.
Nigeria's Golden Eaglets face Sweden for the second time in the tournament after a 3-3 draw in the first round and Garba is confident his boys will get the job done this time without fear.
“All my life, I have never entertained any fear and I don’t even know what fear means. Of course, I know that whatever happens is ordained by God, so I have no fear about Sweden,” said Garba at the pre-match conference in Dubai.
The Nigerian coach made it clear that Group F of the tournament remains the strongest after producing three of the four semifinalists.
But he also dismissed the Swedes by rating the Mexicans as a better team in spite of watching his team hand the North Americans a 6-1 defeat in their opening game.
“Group F was the most competitive at this tournament. Though the Swedes are a good technical side, I’ll still rate Mexico ahead of them for obvious reasons.


“Mexico beat Sweden 1-0 in the group and that was the same team that we beat 6-1 which shows that the Mexicans are a very good side because they are also in the semifinals too," he remarked.
Garba then recalled his time as the interim coach of the Eaglets in 2007 before the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in South Korea and sounded out that his team are out to win this year's edition in the UAE to make it a record four titles at under-17 level.
“As an interim coach in 2007 when we were about leaving Nigeria for the World Cup in Korea, I told Nigerians that it’s the cup or nothing and I still maintain the same thing now because this team has come a long way and we cannot afford to fail,” he explained.
The Nigeria versus Sweden match is live on SuperSport 5 from 5.45pm CAT (4.45pm Nigerian time).