Flamingos look to salvage some of Nigeria's battered pride in World Cup semi final tomorrow

BRAZIL's U17 coach has admitted that she envisages a very tough game when his team faces the Super Flamingos in the semi final of the U17 Women's World Cup tomorrow at the Mohammed VI Football Complex in Rabat.

In what has been a highly redeeming campaign for Nigeria, the Flamingos have successfully navigated their way to the last four of the tournament, beating Venezuela 1-0 in the quarter finals on Sunday. Brazil U-17 women's head coach, Rilany Silva, whose team beat China 2-1 in the quarter finals, said she is now expecting a difficult contest against Nigeria's Flamingos.

Nigeria's Flamingos started the competition with a 2-1 loss to Poland but have improved massively since then. beating Puerto Rico, North Korea, Mexico and Venezuela on their way to last four. Brazil, on the other hand, are yet to taste defeat in the competition, showing their attacking class as they advanced through the rounds with panache.

Ms Silva said: "I'm expecting an extremely difficult match as Nigeria are a very physical team. By the 90th minute, they'll probably still be running as if it were the fifth, so we'll need to be very strategic with our game plan to find ways to hurt Nigeria."

In the other semi final, Japan will face North Korea in what is a rematch of the 2026 U-17 Women’s Asian Cup final, which the Koreans won. In this tournament, however, Japan were the only team to win all of their group matches without conceding, before advancing to the knockout stages where they beat Kenya 3-1 and then defeated Ghana 1-0 to book their space in the semi final.

Brazil come into this match undefeated thus far in Morocco but have been made to work hard for all of their results. A rollercoaster 6-2 win over Canada set the tone for their campaign, with enthralling 3-3 draws with Ghana and Poland in their last two group games but they then bounced back with wins in the knockout stages.

Tomorrow, Nigeria will have to be aware of Greise Kelly, who has been one of the tournament's standout players. She's contributed to eight of the Seleção's 17 goals, including a tournament-high five assists, while spellbinding defences with her exceptional dribbling ability.

Nigeria perhaps would not have made it this far if it was not for the brilliance of goalkeeper Jane Ijirigho, who was terrific in the victories over Puerto Rico and Mexico, making a total 16 saves in the tournament so far. Super Flamingos head coach Akeem Busari, said: "Reaching the semi-finals is a dream come true for me and a great achievement.

"I'm looking forward to it because I want to make my country proud. We want to give our best in the next match and show everyone what we can do."