Nigeria finished outside the medals’ zone after losing 1-2 Angola in the third place match of the 13th Africa U17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania yesterday. The Golden Eaglets however kept their ticket to the FIFA U17 World Cup in Brazil.
The technical crew of the five –time world champions must be quite worried how the Eaglets’ scorecard showed a steady decline in the tournament. First they narrowly edged a nine-goal thriller (against Tanzania); won by a goal from the spot (against Angola); came from behind to draw (against Uganda); lost on penalty shoot-out (against Guinea) and; then lost in regulation time (against Angola).
It is an unflattering output at a continental championship for a country that has won the world title five times, and the team has, sincerely, not done enough to justify the support of the Nigeria Football Federation and the confidence of Nigerian ball fans.
It was always going to end this way for a team that wastes…
