Nigeria U20 meets with Ukraine U20 in round 3 of the group stage of World Cup U20. The match will be played on Thursday, May 30th at Stadion Miejski (Bielsko-Biała)
Before the start of the group stage, the national teams of Nigeria and the USA were called favorites. Ukraine’s chances were slightly lower, and Qatar seemed like a potential outsider. In the first round, the Nigerians coped with Qatar very confidently (4: 0). They managed to score the first two goals before half of the first half. Even after the goal was scored, the African team did not calm down and kept on attacking, because Nigeria was superior to the opponent in terms of speed and skills. Qatar shot on goal three times less and naturally lost the match. Let us note that during preparation for the tournament, the Nigerians played a friendly match against Saudi Arabia, which they lost with a 1:2 score.
The men of Aleksandr Petrakov managed to sensationally cope with the United States in the first match of the tournament (2:1). Yet the name of the American team was among those teams that can become world champions. The Americans seized the initiative from the first minutes, so the Ukrainians were forced to press to their own penalty area. This is not strange, given the fact that the US youth team has 6 players from Bundesliga, as well as trainees of Ajax, Barcelona and PSV. The Ukrainians played very simply - they tried to throw the ball behind the backs of the defenders; nevertheless, these actions turned out to be incredibly successful - after throwing Tsitaishvili, Sergey Buletsa scored with a powerful and accurate one-touch shot. However, soon the Ukrainians themselves made a mistake in their half, and the rival equalized the score.
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In the second half of the meeting, Ukraine looked more interesting. According to the author of the first goal scored, the Ukrainians realized that they can play against the United States and need to win. He could have scored another goal, but he hit the crossbar with a long-range shot. The Ukrainian team did not shoot on goal often, so the set play came to the rescue. After the corner kick of Buletsa, Denis Popov scored. He greatly overleaped everybody in the penalty area. Goalkeeper Andrei Lunin had to come into play repeatedly, and even the post helped Ukraine once. However, the men of Petrakov could have buried Americans, but their goalkeeper made an incredible save at the end of the match.
The youth teams of Nigeria and Ukraine have already met at the World Cup in 2005. Then, the African team gained the minimum victory in the 1/8 finals (1-0), scoring a goal in the second half. However, the result of that game does not say anything, because it was played a long time ago.
In the first round, the men of Petrakov were lucky to some extent, because the opponent had more chances to score. Lunin had to come into play many times, while his counterpart had less work. Most likely, Ukrainians will play about the same football as in the first round. If throwing ahead gives the result, then such a game system has the right to life, and Ukraine will have good chances not to lose in the third round.
Prediction for the match: Ukraine U20 to win with +0.5 handicap
