Norway coach Bjorn Johansen has praised Nigeria’s Flying Eagles as a “very robust opponent” after his staff battled to a slim 1-0 victory of their opening recreation of the twenty fourth FIFA U20 World Cup on Monday.
Sondre Holten’s Ninth-minute penalty — Norway’s first U20 World Cup purpose since Erling Haaland’s nine-goal masterclass in opposition to Honduras at Poland 2019 — proved to be the distinction. However the Europeans spent a lot of the match below siege as Nigeria dominated possession and rained down possibilities.
The Flying Eagles had been inches away from equalizing a number of instances. Kparobo Arierhi’s low strike skimmed previous the publish within the forty seventh minute, Tahir Maigana’s thunderbolt rattled the upright within the 63rd, and Nasiru Salihu’s rocket within the 71st narrowly cleared the crossbar. Late on, Maigana unleashed one other long-range effort that missed by a whisker, whereas two robust penalty appeals had been waved away by the referee.
Norway survived by defending deep, throwing our bodies within the field to repel wave after wave of Nigerian assaults. After the ultimate whistle, Johansen admitted the Flying Eagles had made his staff work arduous for the three factors.
“Profitable is essential, getting the three factors. Each recreation goes to be fought till the tip. Now we’ll play a remaining in opposition to Saudi Arabia. However three factors in our debut, in a World Cup, is essential. Now we have to enhance our recreation, however the construction is sweet and Nigeria is a really robust opponent,” Johansen mentioned.
For Nigeria, the show was stuffed with promise however quick on reward. The 2-time silver medallists will now flip their consideration to Thursday’s must-win conflict in opposition to Saudi Arabia, hoping their dominance lastly interprets into targets.
