U20 AFCON : Five takeaways from Flying Eagles' impressive win v Mozambique 

The Flying Eagles' hopes of qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia is still much alive following Saturday's 2-0 win over Mozambique in their last Group A match of the 2023 CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt. 

 

All Nigeria Soccer here presents the five observations from the Eagles' game at the Suel Cana stadium in Ismailia. 

1.  Game-by-game improvement

 

The Flying Eagles have been improving in the tournament after an opening group defeat to tournament favourites, Senegal. 

 

In their first game against Senegal, they were completely outclassed by the junior Teranga Lions who could have scored more but for missed chances that eventually did not cost them. 

 

2. Aniagboso taking the first choice gloves? 

 

Goalkeeper Chijioke Aniagboso was once again favoured over Nathaniel Nwosu. 

 

Aniagboso was in goal when the team picked the all-important win over Egypt in which he kept the Nigerian national team in the tournament with top drawer saves. 

 

On Saturday, Aniagboso was the one in goal at the expense of long time first choice keeper, Nwosu. 

 

Aniagboso was not as superb as he was against Egypt but that could be down to the quality of the Mozambique U-20 side who did not test him like the Pharaohs did. 

 

3. Attacking sharpness

 

Despite the fantastic goals scored by the duo of Samson Lawal and Ibrahim Muhammad and  ultimately a well deserved win, the Flying Eagles still lost a lot of goal scoring chances. 

 

They need to take their chances better especially in the quarterfinals match. A win in that game takes them to the semifinals and a ticket to the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia. 

 

4. Lucky boy, Bameyi

 

Flying Eagles captain, Daniel Bameyi is a lucky boy. 

 

The Nigerian skipper was booked towards the end fo the match and was almost handed another yellow card but was over warned verbally by the referrer, DR Congo’s Yannick Malala.

 

5. Better ball retention/possession

Ladan Bosso's team improved in their ball retention and possession in the second half after both goals came in the first stanza. 

 

The Eagles finished with a 63.7% ball possession while the Mozambique side had 36.3% of the ball possession. 

    

 

Izuchukwu Michael
 

 

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