The New Zealand Under 17 side will play host nation Nigeria in front of 40,000 in the second round at the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Friday morning.

With group play completed and the top 16 teams all confirmed, the final pieces of the playoff puzzle could be placed.

While Nigeria qualified top of a ‘group of death’ featuring Argentina, Germany and Honduras, taking on the hosts at the 60,000 seat Abuja National Stadium is a prospect that excites New Zealand coach Steve Cain.

“The occasion will be absolutely fantastic. The crowd will be huge and the atmosphere will be absolutely magical,” Cain told the OFC site.

“The African people have been very friendly to us and very complimentary to us when we’ve played. We’ve won some hearts and minds and we’d like to continue that with a game against the host nation.”

“It’s exactly what we’d hope for. It’s an occasion and something that will stick in the boys’ minds for a lifetime.

“At a World Cup, every team you play is going to be hard so you’d rather have a game in front of a full house. We’ve backed ourselves all tournament and we’ll do so again against Nigeria. We’ve shown we’re a very hard team to beat” he concluded.

In other top 16 matches, Argentina plays Colombia, Italy faces USA, Switzerland comes up against Germany and Turkey plays UAE on Thursday while Spain and Burkina Faso clash on Friday along with the Mexico vs Korea Republic, Iran vs Uruguay and New Zealand vs Nigeria.

Fijilive

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