Croatia coach hails team after beating Nigeria

Chief Coach of Croatia, Dario Basic is full of praises for his team after they shocked the defending champions Nigeria in the last group match of the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile in the early hours of Saturday.

Croatia came from behind to defeat Group A winners Nigeria 2-1 and advance to the knockout stages of the World Cup.

“I am very proud of my players who played a great match,” said Coach Basic after the match.

“We approached this game as a final, telling us it was absolutely necessary to win or go home. I believed in my team. It has shown that it can compete with the best teams in the world,” he told FIFA.com.

His Nigerian counterpart, Emmanuel Amuneke, however, confessed that the Croatian side are a good side, adding that the Nigerian Golden Eaglets were not at their best in the match.

“My players wanted to win, but we were not the best tonight. The Croats prevented us from playing our game and deserved to win. My players are very talented, but still have room for improvement collectively,” Amuneke said.

Croatia, knowing a win would be enough for them to advance to the knockout stages, started the match in Coquimbo with great determination and created a number of chances early in the match.

Croatia captain Nikola Moro had a shot from around the penalty area deflect strongly off Nigeria’s brave defenders.

Four minutes later, Nigeria had their first significant chance of the match when Victor Osimhen, after an impressive counter-attack, slotted a shot past Croatia goalkeeper Adrian Semper only for it to hit the base of the goal post.

Osimhen would not have to wait long to see his fortunes change when, after another swift counter attack, he calmly danced around Semper to score and become the tournament’s outright top scorer, tallying his fourth goal at Chile 2015 so far.

Croatia continued to have the majority of possession for the remainder of the half. In the 39th minute Moro had a strong free-kick saved superbly by Nigeria keeper Akpan Udoh.

Croatia would have one more significant chance before the interval but Borna Sosa’s shot was deflected for a corner after Ejike Ikwu’s intervention. When the referee blew the whistle for half-time, Croatia had 18 attempts to Nigeria’s three, but it was the Africans who held the important advantage.

Croatia returned from the break anxious to finally convert a chance and they did so just five minutes into the second half. Josip Brekalo scored the equaliser after Moro wriggled his way along the Nigerian defence’s goal-line and found his team-mate on the back post.

Dario Basic’s Croatia then used their momentum to take the lead four minutes later when they capitalised on an error from Nigeria’s backline.

Karlo Majic cooly curled in a right-footed shot to score his second of the tournament and, more importantly, give his team the lead.

There were chances for both sides towards the end and Nigeria threatened to score an equaliser in the final minutes. The stand-out moment was Croatia defender Branimir Kalaica’s last-ditch block on Samuel Chukwueze to keep his side 2-1 ahead.

Croatia held on to their lead in the end to become the first Croatian team ever to reach the Round of 16 in the tournament and will now face the runners-up in Group C on Thursday, 29 October, while Group A winners Nigeria will wait to see which third-placed team from Groups C, D or E they will come up against in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, 28 October.