Soccer: Young All Whites relishing challenge of Nigeria clash

The Young All Whites are expected to play in front of 60,000 people on Friday morning. Photo / Getty Images

Hosts Nigeria will start hot favourites when they play the Young All Whites in the last of the eight second round matches at the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Abuja on Friday morning but New Zealand coach Steve Cain relishes the chance to put his young charges out in what will be an electric atmosphere.

"The occasion will be absolutely fantastic," said Cain who took over from previous coach Colin Tuaa six months ago when Tuaa departed from Auckland City and took up the chief executive role with the Samoan FA. "It's exactly what we had hoped for. It is an occasion and something that will stick in the boys' minds for a lifetime."

On paper Nigeria, playing in front of an expected sellout crowd of 60,000 at the National Stadium, will be expected to be too strong for the Young All Whites but not everything is against Cain and his team.

Of the teams through to the last 16, Nigeria have conceded the most goals. They let in three in the tournament opening 3-3 draw with Germany - after the Germans had led 2-0 at halftime - and another in beating Argentina 2-1 in their final outing. They also beat Honduras 1-0.

Spain, with nine, scored the most goals in winning through.

While the six group winners went through unbeaten, New Zealand and Colombia were the only other teams to progress without losing.

It has been a tight contest throughout. Seven of the 16 survivors - New Zealand, Mexico, Iran, United States, United Arab Emirates, Italy and Uruguay - scored only three goals in winning through.

The UAE are the first Middle East nation to reach the second phase at an under-17 tournament while New Zealand are the first team other than Australia from the Oceania Confederation to win through at a Fifa tournament.

The unlucky teams to miss out - in being among the best third-placed teams after the group stage - Brazil and the Netherlands needed a third countback before missing the cut.

The Americans finished second in group E after beating UAE 1-0 yesterday leaving UAE in third with three points and a 3-4 goal differential - the same numbers exactly as Brazil and the Netherlands.

It was then taken to a countback of yellow cards received. The Netherlands and Brazil both had six while the UAE had just five and took the remaining spot in the last 16.

Nigeria, with one, had the fewest yellow cards ahead of South Korea (2).

Nigeria played two of their three group games in Abuja in the stadium first used for the 8th All Africa Games in 2003.

Cain cannot wait for what should be a memorable occasion.

"The African people have been very friendly to us and very complimentary when we have played," said Cain. "We have won some hearts and minds and we would like to continue that with a game against the host nation.

"At a World Cup every team you play is going to be hard so you would rather have a game in front of a full house. We have backed ourselves all tournament and we will do so again against Nigeria. We have shown we are a very hard team to beat."

* Second round

Thursday (NZ time): Argentina v Colombia, Turkey v United Arab Emirates, Switzerland v Germany, Italy v United States.

Friday: Spain v Burkina Faso, Iran v Uruguay, Mexico v Korea Republic, Nigeria v New Zealand (7am, live SS1).