Dream Team qualify for All Africa Games

-




Nigeria’s Under23 side, the Dream Team V1 have qualified for the football event of the All Africa Games to be held in Congo-Brazzaville in September this year beating Zambia 2-1 at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.

The Samson Siasia tutored side drew 0-0 with Zambia in the first leg in Abuja a fortnight ago and knew nothing but a win or a score draw will do them any good.

Five members of the victorious Flying Eagles at the Africa Youth Championship in Senegal in February were drafted in to beef the squad and one of the new invitees turned out to be the hero for Nigeria.


Taiwo Awoniyi’s brace in the 34th and 86th minute ensured Nigeria’s passage to Africa’s Premier sporting fiesta.

Zambia put Nigeria under pressure right from the blast of the whistle as they looked to rattle the Nigerians early in the game. Goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel was immense for Nigeria as he kept out everything thrown at him by the Zambians.

John Chingu hit the wood work in the 23rd minute as Ronald Kapamba was also a constant menace upfront for the Zambians.

Godwin Saviour had a good opportunity to create something for Nigeria but he couldn't make hay.
 
The tie turned on it’s head when Awoniyi beat his marker to score in the 34th minute as Nigeria went into the break a goal ahead.

Zambia equalised in the 76th minutes through Friday Samu after sustained pressure by the Zambian attack before Awoniyi put the icing on the cake with Nigeria’s second goal in the 86th minute which effectively killed off the tie as a contest.

Nigeria starting X1

Emmanuel Daniel, Erhun Obanor, Segun Oduduwa, Stanley Amuzie, Atanda Sodiq, Kingsley Sokari, Okechukwu Azubuike, Taiwo Awoniyi, Oghenekaro Etebo, Bernard Bulbwa, Godwin Savior

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NPFL WEEK 8 MATCH DAY 1 RESULTS

-
Image
Week 8, match day 1 results Kwara United 2:0 Nembe City. •El-Kanemi Warriors (Baman Bukar, Haruna Babalo)  2:0 3SC •Gombe United 1:0 Enyimba.FC •Wikki TouristS 1:1 Sharks FC Heartland FC (photo credit goal.com) The Kano Pillars and Heartland FC game at Kano was called off in the first half after police men on duty shot at a spectator during an altercation that went bad. Game was initially held up, but finally called off. More details later on this blog.
Read more

Introducing Barca's Godswill Ekpolo

-
Image
Elohor Godswill Ekpolo sits in the Barcelona dressing room, his Nike Tiempo boots comes off his foot as coach Jordi Vinyals pats him on the head for a great game and for good measure too. The talented right-back had earlier scored for FC Barcelona's Juvenile A squad (equivalent of the Barcelona C team) as they whipped Celtic 3-0 to round up the group stage matches of the 2013/14 Uefa Youth Champions League. The goal was his third in six group stage matches, as Barcelona's Under-19 team ran riot collecting 16 points from a possible 18in a group that also had the youth sides of AC Milan, Ajax and Celtic. Ekpolo is highly rated in the Blaugranas circles and is tipped to become a first team star very soon to follow the footstep of his more illustrious and established La Masia graduates like Carles Poyul, Sergio Busquets, and more recently Cameroonian youngster Jean Marie Dongou.
Read more

Joseph Olowu declares for Nigeria

-
Image
Arsenal U23 defender Joseph Olowu is primed to follow in the footsteps of former Arsenal star Alex Iwobi as he has declared his allegiance to Nigeria. Olowu, who is a mainstay in the Arsenal U23 side, was initially pencilled to be part of the Flying Eagles preparatory camp in Germany before Poland 2019 but injury cut short that dream. The centre back, who can also play at right-back and in defensive midfield overcame that injury and is now having a decent run in Arsenal’s U23 side. Olowu, 19, who also trains with the Arsenal first-team, told Andrew Randa that Nigeria has always been on his mind and will always be the first choice.
Read more