Danjuma confident as U-20 draw holds in Bogotá and Flamingos to fly into Monrovia on Thursday

Coach Chris Musa Danjuma has assured that the Nigeria U20 girls, Falconets, have no fears as the draw ceremony for this year’s FIFA U20 World Cup finals takes place in the Colombian capital, Bogotá on Wednesday.
“We have no fear about any of the teams in the finals. Any team can be in our group. We know that to be the best, we have to beat the best,” said Danjuma, who took the team to the quarter-finals of the last edition in Costa Rica.
The 2024 finals in Colombia will be the first to welcome 24 teams, with Africa supplying four (Nigeria, Morocco, Cameroon, and Ghana). Matches will take place in four venues in three different cities (Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali). There will be two venues in Bogotá – Estadio El Campín and Estadio El Techo. The Estadio Atanasio Girardot in Medellín and the Estadio Pascual Guerrero in Cali are the other venues.
Already, the 24 finalists have been segregated into four pots thus:
Pot 1: Colombia, Spain, Japan, France, Korea DPR, Germany
Pot 2: Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, USA, Netherlands, New Zealand
Pot 3: Korea Republic, Ghana, Australia, Canada, Paraguay, Argentina
Pot 4: Austria, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Fiji Islands, Morocco, Venezuela.
Wednesday’s draw will throw the 24 teams into six groups of four teams each, with the two top-placed teams in each group qualifying for a Round of 16, alongside the best four third-placed teams.
Germany and the USA are the biggest winners of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, with three triumphs each. Korea DPR are two-time winners, with Japan and Spain winning once each. Spain are the Cup holders.
Meanwhile, the delegation of Nigeria’s U17 girls, Flamingos, will fly into the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on Thursday ahead of Sunday’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup final qualifying fixture, first leg encounter against their Liberian counterparts.
To reach this stage, the 2022 World Cup bronze medallists dispatched their counterparts from the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso with high goal margins. Central African Republic fell by a dozen goals on aggregate while the Burkinabe girls were routed 7-1.
Liberia, who ejected Senegal from the race, faces an uphill task against the nimble-footed Nigerian girls with Coach Bankole Olowookere insisting that the Flamingos are determined to be in the Dominican Republic to have the opportunity to challenge for the trophy this time around.
Sunday’s match has been slated for the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex at Paynesville – the same venue where the Super Eagles defeated the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone last year to qualify for this year’s Africa Cup of Nations.