The Flying Eagles were held to a 1-1 draw by Cote d’l voire in their opening game at the U-20 AFCON WAFU B qualifiers in Benin on Sunday, reports Completesports.com.
Chris Nwaeze put the Flying Eagles ahead a minute after the hour mark.
Nwaeze nodded home from Wisdom Ubani’s free-kick.
Ladan Bosso’s side were reduced to 10-men nine minutes later when Nwaeze was sent off for a second bookable offence.
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The Ivoriens piled pressure on the Eagles and equalised on the dot of 90 minutes.
Peter Olawale, Nwaeze and Ubani wasted clear cut opportunities for Flying Eagles in the game.
They will face perennial rivals the Black Satellites of Ghana in their final Group B game on Wednesday.
The competition began Saturday with hosts Benin going down 1-0 to Niger, while Togo and Burkina Faso played out a 1-1 draw.
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_Flying Eagles Fall To Late Strike_
The Flying Eagles of Nigeria now have it all to do on Wednesday against perennial foes Ghana after failing to hold on to their slim one goal advantage against Ivory Coast today with the match eventually ending 1:1.
Christopher Nwaeze’s delightful header off an eloquently taken curling free-kick from Wisdom Ubani had powered Nigeria ahead in 58 minutes only for the Ivorian youths to draw level at the death in 93 minutes.
The Nigerian contingents had been talking tough leading up to this encounter but from my point of view, they failed to match this up with action on the pitch against Ivory Coast. Flying Eagles striker Peter Olawale was quoted yesterday as saying that they have come to Benin to win the Wafu Cup whilst coach Bosso had called the tough group ‘a blessing in disguise’.
However, it must have felt like ‘a curse in the open’ when goal scorer Nwaeze was shown his marching orders in 70 minutes for a rather innocuous foul which only served to invigorate the Ivorians as they took advantage of their extra man to pile pressure on the Flying Eagles.
This eventually paid off in 93 minutes when a pass sliced open Nigeria’s right back area with the fullback well beaten and the young Ivorian striker coolly finishing off with aplomb to break Nigerian hearts.
I wouldn’t call it a cruel blow as I had noticed both full back areas of the Flying Eagle as suspect throughout the encounter with the effect of those shortcomings coming home to roost at the worst possible time from Nigeria’s perspective.
But the story would have been so different in the 69th minutes had Wisdom Ubani done the needful: through on goal after fending off an Ivorian defender with just the goalkeeper to contend with, the Super Eagles hopeful sliced his effort just wide off the mark (a chance missed to make it 2:0 for Nigeria; one that came to haunt him at the end of the game as he collapsed to the ground after the final whistle, contemplating what could have been).
The pitch was deplorable, a bad advert for African football but both Nigeria and Ivory Coast were a victims of this.
That aside, it was difficult at times to decipher the pattern of play of Nigeria. They often deployed long, hopeful yet aimless long balls from defence to attack. Decision making in the opponents final third was haphazard on occasions: some of the wingers went for goal rather than cross the ball whilst low and high crosses (when delivered) were poorly executed.
The Flying Eagles struggled to carve out clear-cut scoring opportunities whilst our fullbacks were often caught out of position – ultimately leading to the equaliser. Ivory Coast’s higher press unsettled Nigeria more than once.
I might be wrong about this but the Ivorians appeared to win the physical battles whilst technical injection on Nigeria’s part was hard to see.
Having said all that, the pitch clearly hampered the ability of the Nigerians to move the ball on the ground as they would have liked. They put the Ivorians under sustained pressure earlier on leading to so many corner kicks for Nigeria (which weren’t utilised). Wisdom Ubani delivered some beautiful through balls in the first half which should have lead to more productive outcomes. There was, in fairness, purpose to their play, but this wasn’t always apparent and most of their moves broke down needlessly due to limited vision from the players.
In short, Nigeria were not as compact, cohesive and creative as I would have loved to see even though the pitch was admittedly disgraceful. Still, there were positives to take out of this encounter.
They will clearly need to do more to win the tournament.
I am yet to see the Ghanaians play but I suspect they will offer a sterner test than the Ivorians. The chances of winning this group have just become slimmer with Ivory Coast’s equalising goal.
Nigeria 1, Ivory Coast 1.
The team was wasteful in front of goal. They could have wrapped up the game earlier enough. Well, if they do not win against Ghana, then it is sayonara for Nigeria. Bosso is not the right man for the job. They ought to have gotten someone much suitable or perhaps a very good assistant coach for him. It is all about winning. The NFF did not do a good job here.
Typical home-grown team. A lot of energy and skill but no scoring brain. Only God knows the number of chances they would have to waste before a single goal will come. We will have a clearer picture of how things will be in the next match.
NFF should take bulk of the blame. A team that is less than a month old shouldn’t be expected to perform any miracle. I pray this generation of U-17 and U-20 is not wasted again. Otherwise, Super Eagles might take the hit due of lack of quality replacement.
@ Papafem. What should worry is those hungry agents would have started reaching out to these young lads as to get them all sorts of Obscure foreign leagues, which is the main purpose of the clamour for home based players to main stream SE. They will come as starved dogs, to satisfy their ever selfish desire; to the detriment of both players and country
If it is SE they will say Rohr doesn’t have a winning mentality as to why d opponent have to equalise from winning position.
Saw the game, I would say the players were very wasteful in converting chances.. Wisdom Ubani or what is that his name is a poor striker, the only wonderful thing about his game is his freekicks one of which lead to the goal but aside that I don’t see any thing wonderful in him for him to wear number 9 .. Caf should do something about the red card, the player was innocent, in fact the Ivory Coast guy needs to be suspended for diving.. So so disappointed in the referee
We’re did you watch the match?
@deo, nice observations bro, I didn’t see the match but I think wisdom obani is a good striker for the eagles becos of his great footwork and speed, he also have strong bullets in his foot, but the guy misses alot chances even one on one ocassions with goalkeepers, this weakness cost him is regular first team place, during the u17 wcup. Now that same weaknesses is showing up again in another important stage of his career. Nice player indeed I hope he stays strong and work on his finishing, he can be the nest Patrick mboma. I think the flying eagles did not do bad in 1 1 draw with Ivorians, considering how and when bosso started his team preparations and playing with a man down is not easy against an equal rival like ivorycoast. We will bit Ghana and qualify to the nest round I trust Bosso and his boys they canever carry last.
We are watching, Minister Dare and his yeye NFF with their firebridgage approach. Imagine assembly a team less than a a month to a major tournament, what sort of performance do u expect other than this? The yeye minister only knows how to dance to media popularity, thinking it’s all about politics. Am still waiting for his qouta system list.
Am also waiting for Dare list of homebase players for SE. Mr quota system. If this was Rohr people 4 full here now.
Why are people who didn’t watch the match come here and be spilling beans, abeg how many chances were wasted biko, please go back and watch the match again, the stadium was just horrible, no free flowing game. Ball bouncing here and there. Will fault the coach who failed to defensive after the red card. Wisdom yes i will agree blew a golden chance to seal the match, because the Ivorians were horrible. Hope we beat Ghana on Wednesday.
Guys in case you didn’t see the game and other qualifiers so far, you can view the games here.
https://www.facebook.com/AFCON-TV-108522201114518/
I saw the game live.. There was one opportunity that came to one of our strikers, he was one on one with the keeper but immediately he got hold of the ball he fell to the ground like a log of wood.. If those boys utilized the chances they had, civ would have been badly beaten..
What sort of coaches do we even have e in this country, a player on a yellow card has just scored a goal, what stops the coach from withdrawing him for a fresh player at sixty something minutes, and he went on to get a second card, it shows the Lord ineptitude of the coaching crew period…
For the WAFU U20 match between Benin and Togo, you can view the live stream of the 2nd half here
https://www.facebook.com/AFCON-TV-108522201114518/