By Victor Kanayo
Nigeria on Wednesday May 31, 2023, lost 0-1 to Netherlands in their first game of the ongoing Four-Nation U16 Dream Cup International tournament in Japan.
The Netherlands scored the only goal of the match in the first half, following a shaky start from the Nigerian team.
The Future Eagles as the Nigerian side are popularly known, improved their performance as the game progressed, but were unable to get an equaliser.
Post-Match Reaction
In his post-match reaction via the Nigeria Football Federation platform, Nigeria’s Coach Haruna Ilerika, said his wards were mainly nervous before they conceded goal.
He said, “We lost to Netherland 0-1, not too bad on the part of the team, considering the exposure of the boys. My boys were a bit jittery in the first 30 minutes of the game and we conceded a very cheap goal.
“We played against a very good side, most of the dutch boys are in a very well nurtured academies in team B of most of those big clubs in Europe and the chemistry is there for them.
“We on our part, we have been able to see how the boys can push up in the next match because we need to do some experiment, this is our first game at this level.
“We have seen the experiment and we hope that in the second game we are going to come better against Japan, we are hoping for a win in our next game and see how the team can be better.”
Next Games
Nigeria will face Japan in their second match of the competition Friday.
On Sunday, the Nigerian young boys will square up against the United States of America inside the Fukushima stadium, Japan.
