Nigeria coach Thomas Dennerby has said that he wants to avoid United States and his country of birth Sweden when the draw for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 takes place on Saturday 8 December 2018.
The African champions have every reason to fear another confrontation with the Americans as the two countries have met four times in the group stage of previous World Cups, with the Super Falcons losing all the matches and conceding 14 goals.
Although Dennerby thinks Sweden will be dangerous opponents, the head-to-head stats don't back up his statements as the Falcons have only lost once to the Scandinavians in three previous meetings and that was fifteen years ago.
Asked by Bunmi Blair what teams he wants to avoid at the group stage of the World Cup, Dennerby answered : ''To be honest, I know that USA, Nigeria and Sweden, used to play in the same group, I think it was almost three times in a row before now.
''For that reason, it will be fun to play other teams than the same, all the time. I hope we can have other teams and for the fact that it is now 24 teams, there is little chance we will have them this time around.
''But if I look at each pot, I think there are teams in each pot we really have a good opportunity to beat and I hope with good preparation, we can definitely have a chance to come to the knockout stages this summer.''
Nigeria are in pot four for the World Cup draw along with Argentina, Chile, Cameroon, South Africa and Jamaica.
World Cup Draw Pots
Pot 1: France, Germany, USA, England, Canada, Australia
Pot 2: Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Norway
Pot 3: Korea Republic, China PR, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, Thailand
Pot 4: Argentina, Chile, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Jamaica
Ifeanyi Emmanuel
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