'It could have been six, seven' - Manu Garba admits Golden Eaglets were not efficient in front of goal 

Speaking at the post-match press conference after his side's 3-0 win against Togo in their final group game of the 2024 WAFU Zone B U17 Championship, Golden Eaglets coach Manu Garba urged his strikers to be more efficient in front of goal. 

Five-time world champions Nigeria are through to the semifinals of the WAFU Zone B U17 Championship as Group B winners, thanks to a brace from Abdulmuiz Adeleke and an additional tally from Rapha Adams.

Despite finding the net twice, Adeleke was also wasteful in front of goal, missing a gilt-edged chance early on and squandered a  glorious chance to give the Golden Eaglets a four-goal cushion midway through the second half when he failed to convert a penalty.

"There's improvement but not up to what we want. Even as we have scored three goals, it could have been six, seven if they had converted the chances," Manu Garba told reporters. 

"We'll still work on our boys scoring too. We'll still work on the attack because we want to convert every chance we have created so that we can be comfortable in every match we play. But I think there's improvement in the two previous games."

Manu Garba observed that the Golden Eaglets performed significantly better than in their last two matches, where they were held to a goalless draw by Burkina Faso and narrowly won 1-0 against the Republic of the Niger.

"It was a good game for us not because we won by three goals to nothing, but because my team played much better than the two previous games. 

"I said earlier in the post-match interviews in the two previous games that this is our third international game after we resumed camp, and I said that these boys would get better as the tournament progresses

"You can see today we played the match without three key players who are injured. We still lost another player today but not withstanding we are very well focused to do well in this tournament."

Nigeria will face Ivory Coast in the semifinals of the 2024 WAFU Zone B U17 Championship on Saturday, May 25, with kickoff scheduled for 2100 hours Nigerian time. 

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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