Golden Eaglets assistant coach, Nduka Ugbade is confident of victory against Holland as long as the team adheres to the coaches’ tactical instructions.
The Eaglets will face Holland in the round of 16 tonight, hoping to bounce back from their surprise defeat to Australia on Friday.
“We have been talking to the boys on the importance of taking every match very serious and playing according to the instructions given.” Ugbade told NationSport.
“If we can convert scoring chances that we are going create during the match tomorrow and we follow the tactical instructions given against Holland then we will beat Holland.
“We already know that Holland is a very good footballing nation with a very strong league and football development programmes like Spain, Germany, France, Brazil, England and Belgium. So, we surely know very well without fear what we are up against.”
Ugbade added that the team has put their surprise defeat to Australia in their last Group B behind them and the morale within the team is high.
“At this point we know and can, to a large extent, see that the morale of the boys has been lifted and the boys worked very hard in training yesterday.”
“So, we know what we are up against. And honestly I hope that the Australia shock could and will be used as a positive thing going into the match against Holland.”
On how the team would play against the Dutch, Ugbade admitted that their opponents are attack minded and the Eaglets have to be compact in all areas of the games.
He said: Holland is an attack minded team. Yes we know this and we have been talking to the boys on the aspect of marking and compactness of the 3 sectors.
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“When we are on the offensive and defensive, we must be attentive to our tactical details. We must not be selfish. We must convert the chances as they come unlike in the Australia game where we lost a lot of chances to win the game.”