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NIGERIA’S GOLDEN EAGLETS CRUMBLE 4-2 TO SENEGAL

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Senegal appears to fast becoming the bogey team of Nigeria’s national teams as the U17 side, Golden Eaglets surrendered a 2-1 advantage at the end of first half to superior second half performance from Senegal to lose 4-2 in their last group game at the UEFA/CAF U17 tournament in Turkey.

Sports Village Square recall that this year alone, Senegal had beaten Nigeria in beach soccer tournament in Egypt and also inflicted a 1-0 defeat on the Super Eagles in a pre-Africa Cup of Nations friendly match in Egypt.

For the Golden Eaglets, signs that it could turn out a bad day in the office for the five –time world champions manifested when forward Wisdom Ubani picked up an injury during the team’s warm up exercise, which subsequently ruled him out of the game.

But despite the absence of Ubani, the Nigerian boys went into the game dictating the pace and opened scoring in the 13th minute through red hot attacker, Olakunle Olusegun to make it his third goal in the tournament having scored in both previous games against host nation Turkey and Guatemala.

Senegal did not sit back to soak up the pressure, rather they launched attack after attack at their more illustrious opponents in the world of U17 football and got rewarded for their efforts in the 29th minute courtesy of an own goal.

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Their celebration was cut short when they also suffered the same fate of an own goal in the 31st minute.  The score line remained at 2-1 at the interval.

A more revitalized Senegal took the game to Nigeria in the second period, bombarding the defence of the Eaglets for the equalizer. They were rewarded with a penalty, which was converted for an equaliser in the 51st minute.

It was indeed explosive West African youth football on display on a neutral ground in Turkey, but it was Senegal that went ahead to score two more goals to ensure 4-2 victory at the end of 90 minutes.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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