Flying Eagles beat Italy to maintain perfect start to FIFA U20 World Cup
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles yesterday defeated Italy’s Gli Azzurrini 2-0 to maintain their 100 per cent perfect start at the ongoing FIFA U20 World Cup in Argentina.
The Nigerian side had kicked off their campaign with a 2-1 win over Dominican Republic on Sunday and have now progressed to the next round of the biennial football world championship tournament.
It was a cagey affair in the first half as both sides were unable to get on the score sheet but it was a different ball game in the second half with Ladan Bosso making some tactical substitutions.
His changes had immediate effect as Salim Fago nodded home the first goal of the game in the 61st minute.
With eight additional minutes to be played in Mendoza, Jude Sunday made it 2-0 in 95th minute as Nigeria topped Group D with 6 points.
The Eagles will file out against
Brazil on Saturday for the final group game.
Meanwhile, a business man named Aliyu Oroje Wammako who is president of Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria has promised each player a plot of land in Abuja should they win the World Cup.
Wammako, who is a die-hard football fan also promised that the officials would eat out of the bunch when he visited the team at their base in Mendoza.
Nigeria has never won the FIFA
U20 World Cup in their history and the closest they came was in the 1989 and 2005 editions where they lost in the finals.
The Flying Eagles were defeated by Portugal 2-0 in the final in Saudi 89’ while the 2005 team led by Isaac Promise lost 2-1 to Argentina with Lionel Messi scoring both goals.
Ghana is the only African team to have won the competition in the 2009 edition, beating Brazil in the finals via penalties. The team was led by current Black Stars captain Andre Ayew.