Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles had a shaky start to the West African Football Union (WAFU) zone-b qualifiers for the African U-20 Cup of Nations, as Coach Ladan Bosso’s wards were stalled by a red card, lost several scoring chances and eventually settled for a 1-1 draw with Coe d’Ivoire.
Megasportsarena.com gatheed that Bosso’s side entered Sunday’s game in Porto Novo, Benin Republic beaming with confidence and boasts, but they were brought down to earth in the most unexpected manner, as the boys from Abidjan put up a gritty fight at Stade Charles de Gaulle.
With first choice goalkeeper, John Amah unavailable for selection due to injury, Bosso opted for Kolawale Oladipo between the posts, while Mike Zaruma, Moses Solomon, Isaiah Ejeh and Christopher Nwaeze started in defence.
While Adewale Oladoye, Azeez Oseni and Muhammad Abdallah featured in midfield, Chisom Orji, Wisdom Ubani and Peter Olawale partnered upfront, but their efforts were not good enough to give Nigeria the day.
The Flying Eagles had a good first half but were not clinical enough to break the deadlock, even as Olawale and Nwaeze both missed golden opportunities, but the opposing goalkeeper could not prevent Nwaeze from opening scoring just past the hour mark, when the youngster headed home from an Ubani free-kick.
Sadly, Bosso’s lads had a mountain to climb to secure a win after Nwaeze was dismissed in the 69th minute for a second bookable offense, shortly after Ubani missed a clear chance to double the advantage.
The red card unsettled the Flying Eagles and they could not hang on to their lead and the Ivoriens eventually equalised in the first minute of stoppage time; leaving Boso desperate for victory in the next game, when his side battle Ghana in their final Group B match of the WAFU-UFOA Zone B qualifiers on Wednesday.
