After creating history over the weekend by becoming the first New Zealand side to win a game at the age-group tournament with their 5-1 victory over Myanmar in Wellington, Darren Bazeley’s team raised the bar again 24 hours later when their first ever berth in the knockout stage of the tournament was confirmed via other results.
Thursday’s showdown with Group C winners Portugal in Hamilton represents the team’s third chance at history inside a week on home soil and Bazeley says the squad’s final session on Wednesday has left the side well prepared.
“The boys are in a good place. It was a good little tempo, we didn’t do too much today. A little bit of tactical stuff, we got the boys legs moving and the session went well and I think the boys are ready,” Bazeley said.
The New Zealand coach has faced questions all week regarding the quality of Thursday’s opposition but Bazeley says his team aim to take advantage of any hint of complacency while pointing to their own history of performing well against the more fancied names of world football.
“This is a big challenge for us; they are a very good team Portugal, with some good players. They’ve had some success in the build-up and at this World Cup and they’ll be looking to move forward. The danger for them is they probably already have got an eye on the Brazil game ahead of them but they’ve got to deal with us first.”
“It’s a big game but we’ve played quite a lot of internationals now over the past year.
“In the build up we had some varied results but we played some good teams. I look back and we played Brazil almost exactly a year ago. That day we came against a very good Brazil team and we drew 0-0 and within the game we had the best chance to win.
“I think that shows that on any given day, any team, any underdog – including ourselves – can match, compete and stay in games and create chances to try and win the game.”
Bazeley said regardless of the result on Thursday, he has urged his team to leave nothing in the tank as they look to tip the scales of history in their favour one more time.
“I want to see them give everything they’ve got and put on a performance that everybody is proud of and they can go away and say they gave it everything.
“Hopefully we get a great result and it can be a brilliant evening, a real celebration, if we can get through this game.
“The boys have felt that against Myanmar when we scored goals and we got the win and they celebrated that afterwards. There are good feelings in the camp when you win games like that.
“If we can get over the line in this game, they can have that feeling again and it will be a great achievement for us and New Zealand to get into the quarter-finals.”
Clayton Lewis is the only player unavailable for New Zealand with the attacking midfielder ruled out by a caution picked up against Myanmar, his second of the tournament.
Thursday’s game kicks off at 7.30pm at Waikato Stadium and tickets are still available here.
FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015 – Round of 16
Thursday 11 June, 7.30pm
New Zealand v Portugal
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
New Zealand (from): 1. Oliver Sail (GK), 2. Jesse Edge, 3. Deklan Wynne, 4. Sam Brotherton, 5. Adam Mitchell, 6. Bill Tuiloma (capt), 7. Joel Stevens, 8. Moses Dyer, 9. Alex Rufer, 10. Clayton Lewis, 11. Matthew Ridenton, 12. Nik Tzanev (GK), 13. Brock Messenger, 14. Cory Brown, 15. Monty Patterson, 16. Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, 17. Andrew Blake, 18. Andre de Jong, 19. Stuart Holthusen, 20. Noah Billingsley, 21. Damian Hirst (GK)
For more on the FIFA U-20 World Cup visit FIFA.com

Share