Australian goalkeeper,  Melissa Barbieri disclo-sed that their lack of knowledge about the Nigeria  women pushed them into practicing with male youth teams to prepare specifically for Nigeria at the World Cup due to their skilful and unpredictable style of play.

Nigeria’s soccer team players run with balls during a training session at the Waverley Soccer Complex in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on June 9, 2015, ahead of their 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup group D football match against Australia to be played on June 12. AFP PHOTO

Nigeria and Australia play a must win game on Friday night and according to Berbieri the Maltidas will bounce back, but Falcons coach Edwin Okon has other ideas.

“It is very difficult to predict but we did a lot of training in the beginning leading up to the World Cup with a lot of boys teams and the instruction was to play off the cuff.

“We sort of had that in our mindset that African nations are very, very good footballers but do play their own style and brand that we rarely get to see and usually when we get to see them it is in a World Cup. So, hopefully we’ve done enough practice for those sorts of things with the boys back home,” Barbieri said.

Coach Okon stated that his girls have gotten over their draw against Sweden and are focused on taking all three points from the Aussies.

“I also don’t know anything about the Australian team we will play next but it is a must win game.

“No team is a pushover. We do not underrate any team. Since it is eleven versus eleven, it is the grass that will decide,” he said.