Though they have already sailed through to the Round of 16 at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile 2015, Golden Eaglets have predicted a tough match between Nigeria and Croatia at the Estadio Francisco Sanchez Rumoroso in Coquimbo.
As recent as September 6, Croatia beat Nigeria 3-2 in an acrimonious encounter at the 2015 Suwon U-17 Invitational Tournament in Korea but the Golden Eaglets reckoned it would be pay back time on Friday.
"We were unlucky against Croatia in Suwon because we were leading them 2-1 until few minutes to the end of the match," recalled defender John Lazarus."They got a penalty to equalize and the winning goal later and that stopped us from winning the tournament.
"We won't allow that to happen against uson Fridayand we will work harder to win," added the diminutive defender who was in the U-13 National Team that won the London International Youth Tournament in 2010.
The two matches in Group A would be played simultaneously on Friday at 12:00 midnight Nigerian time (8:00pm local Chilean time) with the three other teams needing a win to have a realistic chance of progressing to the Round of 16 along with Nigeria.