IHF Men’s Junior: Coach Adewunmi Confident Of Nigeria Win Against Sweden

IHF Men’s Junior: Coach Adewunmi Confident Of Nigeria Win Against Sweden

By Admin

Coach Shittu Adewunmi is optimistic that his team can shock Sweden and qualify for the second round when both teams clash in the final Group B game on Monday at the ongoing 1HF Men’s Junior (U21) World Championship in Spain.

The Swedes are the favourites having won three out of four games and amassed six points, while the Nigeria team has two points from one win from four games. Also, the Swedish team is third on the log behind Egypt and France, while the Nigerian team is fifth.
To stand a chance of qualifying for the nest round, the Nigerian team must beat the Swedes who physically and technically better than the Nigerians but Coach Adewunmi believes these advantages would not matter when both teams clash .

In a message to the NationSport yesterday, the former international stated that his players understands the importance of the win and their prepared to give their all in the game.
“The team understands the importance of the win to their qualification, they are well prepared. We intend to force them (the Swedes) to make errors while we capitalise on the counter attacks.

“Though, we have issues with sustaining our first half performance in previous matches, due to the less numbers of players available to the team, we hope to do better this time.

“We have only 12 players in the team compared to the allowed 18 or 20 man team. Options for substitutions is limited, but that notwithstanding, we are ready to make it count. The only advantage the Swedes and other teams has over us is sizes and we have prepared to check mate from coming closer
“Most players in the opposing teams are over 6ft 2in and it gives them advantage in defence while it is very easy to steal the ball from us and punish us on counter.

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“We have tried to check that by limiting our attacking options to our best two players,” he added.

Credit: Sportinglife