Thuursday’s early morning FIFA U-20 World Cup Group D  fixture between Nigeria’s Flying Eagles   and Croatia should make for fascinating viewing. The African side are on a roll after their convincing 5-0  annihilation of Guatemala, while the Europeans will be looking to corrent the balance following their  shock 2-0 loss to Saudi Arabia.

Despite their impressive opening performance, Nigeria know that Croatia will prove a tougher nut to crack, and coach John Obuh will be hoping star forward Ahmed Musa is on song.

Croatia may have gone down against Saudi Arabia but coach Ivan Grnja remains optimistic about his side’s chances: “We’ve got two games still to play and we just need to perform better than we did in the first match.”

To do that, the 62 year-old will have to address the issue of a misfiring attack that got off 15 shots against Saudi Arabia without finding the back of the net.

Nigeria need two goals to become the top-scoring African side in the history of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Current leaders, Ghana have 55 to their name, giving Obuh’s men an extra incentive to keep the goals flowing.
Croatian midfileder, Zvonko Pamic said that the Nigerians can be beaten.

“We were unlucky against Saudi Arabia. We had a number of chances to score, and now we have to beat Nigeria in a much harder game. They’re an excellent side, as we all know, but we can win if we improve our performance.”
Coach Obuh expects a tough tie from the Croats,who he has told his boys to be wary of.

“We’ll be very wary going into the game against Croatia. A win will be a big boost to our chances of going through, but we want to avoid a loss at all costs.”