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Assistant coach of Nigeria’s U17 national team Jolomi Atune is highlighting the positives from Nigeria’s U17 semi-final defeat against their Guinean counterpart although admitted how painful it was to have been beaten on penalty after the effort by the team failed to yield the desired result despite having more chances in the game proper.
Atune said in a chat with www.brila.net that the camp of the team is very dull and quiet after the defeats but stressed that this at the same time could also serve the team as a blessing in disguise with the reality of the need for more work now from everybody and also the need to raise their performance just like the 2015 Emmanuel Amuneke led world-conquering Eaglet team who also lost like this at the semi-final of the 2015 U17 AFCON.
“It’s really painful, the camp is quiet, everybody is dull because we were thinking of winning this trophy but this is a lesson for us to prepare well for the world cup.
Nigeria has won this tournament twice but won the world cup 5 times and look at the Amueneke team they lost at this same stage and went on to win the world cup so this might be a blessing in disguise.”
Nigeria will be one of the four African teams at the 2019 FIFA U17 world cup in Brazil.