The Nigeria women’s U-17 team, Flamingoes will on Friday battle it out with United States of America as they seek to book their first ever appearance in the semis of the competition.

The Nigerian ladies bounced back from an opening defeat against Germany to trash New Zealand and Chile as they finished runners-up in Group B.

Having failed to reach the semi-finals in six previous editions, the Flamingoes will set out to achieve the impossible, ending the country’s 14-year wait for a last-four berth in the competition.

The USA ended up winners of Group A with seven points after winning two, drawing one, and losing none of their games.

The Yanks will be looking at reaching the semis for the first time since 2008 when they finished as runners-up at the inaugural edition in New Zealand

The match is scheduled for the DY Patil Stadium and will kick-off 12pm Nigeria time.

Flamingoes Head Coach, Bankole Olowookere said that the quarter finals is not the end of the road for the team, stating that they are out to cause upsets in the competition.

“As a coach, I have achieved getting to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, but as Nigeria, we have not reached the final journey,” Olowookere stated on NFF TV.

“The best we have ever gotten at the U-17 Women’s World Cup is the quarter-final stage; I’m here to create a lot of upsets and set new records.“We need to work hard to get to the semi-final and set a new record for the U-17 team.”

He added, “We respect the USA team; they are a superpower in female football. I am watching them closely; they play well and score many goals. I have to be careful about playing them.

“I am going for the win, but I have to look at our loopholes and try to correct some of the things we are not doing right. By the time we are done with all these, we’ll have what it takes to defeat the USA.”