Five takeaways from Nigeria's win against Burkina Faso In U17 WAFU Zone B final

Nigeria's Golden Eaglets on Friday evening defeated Burkina Faso 2-1 to lift the WAFU Zone B tournament in Cape Coast to qualify for the 2023 CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria.

These are the observations from the final.

Nigeria's early pressing game

Nduka Ugbade's boys took the game to Burkina Faso early in the game and played most of the first quarter in the opposition half.

The high level of pressure eventually paid off with the goal in the 22nd minute.

Jeremiah Olaleke's culpability

Nigeria conceded an equaliser four minutes before the break when centre back Jeremiah Olaleke and his goalkeeper Richard Odoh made a defensive blunder when they miscalculated the flight of the ball.

Lost possession

After their win against Togo, coach Nduka Ugbade admitted that his boys lost possessions a lot and must work on improving their ball retention.

That anomaly played out a couple of times in the final and is something that must be ironed out.

Eaglets need deadly number 9

Captain Precious Williams was deployed a lot as a false nine but the team needs to get the best out of forward Iyede or any other striker that is handed the task in Algeria 2023.

Eaglets mentality

Time and again the Golden Eaglets proved that they have winning mentality. They came from behind to defeat Cote d’Ivoire.

Against Burkina Faso, they did not get panicky when their opponents equalised before the halftime break.

That says a lot about their football education.

Izuchukwu Michael
   

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