The sixth match day of the FIFA U-20 World Cup will begin on Thursday afternoon. Traditional powerhouse Nigeria will meet North Korea in a pivotal Group E match in New Plymouth. Both teams lost their opening matches and will be looking to grab points. A loss for either team could possibly knock them out of the tournament.
Nigeria lost to Brazil 4-2 in a highly exciting first match of the tournament. The “Flying Eagles” were potent on the offensive end in the first half, with Udinese's Isaac Success and Tottenham Hotspur's Musa Yahaya scoring a goal apiece.
Yahaya was the star of the team in the first half, using a rabona to assist Success' goal and finishing a swift counterattack with a right footed strike. However, Nigeria's attack failed in the second half, and some defensive errors caused the team to give up two soft goals.
Kelechi Iheanacho, the Nigerian playmaker, did not have as good of a game as he would have liked to. He hit the post and had a hand in Yahaya's goal, but did not do much besides that. For Nigeria to succeed in this tournament, Iheanacho has to play better.
North Korea qualified for the World Cup by finishing as runners-up to Qatar in the AFC U-19 Championship. The Koreans made a splash by defeating Japan in the quarterfinals on penalties before eventually falling to the middle easterners. Jo Kwang-Myong was the top scorer in the tournament with five goals.
North Korea were thrashed 5-1 by Hungary in their opening match of the tournament. The lone Korean goal came from Choe Ju-Song. They were subjected to wave after wave of Hungarian attacks, and eventually succumbed to five goals, most notably a hat-trick from Bence Mervo. North Korea will definitely be looking to perform better against Nigeria.