Golden Eaglets inspired to end 16-year wait for U-17 AFCON title — Ugbade

Golden Eaglets coach, Nduka Ugbade has revealed that the Nigerian side are motivated to win the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations title for the third time. The Eaglets kicked off the campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Zambia in their opening game in Constantine with a late winner from Favour Daniel. The result saw […]

Golden Eaglets coach, Nduka Ugbade has revealed that the Nigerian side are motivated to win the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations title for the third time.

The Eaglets kicked off the campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Zambia in their opening game in Constantine with a late winner from Favour Daniel.

The result saw Nigeria take control of Group B in the U17 AFCON before Morocco replaced them following 2-0 win over South Africa in the other group game.

Nigeria is in Algeria chasing a third U17 AFCON crown after winning the last one 16 years ago.

After the game, Ugbade told CAFonline.com that the win puts them in a good position to end the wait for a third win.

“Winning the first game gives us a mental edge and psychologically, we are better than we started.

“We created lots of chances that we couldn’t finish, some passes were not correct and many more errors. But the good thing is that we keep improving.

“Of course, we have the targets to win, but we need to go a step at a time.

“We focus on the next match and if we win we are in the quarters. We get to the quarters we win and we are in the World Cup,” he said.

Despite a positive start to the tournament in Algeria, Coach Ugbade was not happy with his team’s play in the final third.

Nigeria created a number of good chances in both halves but were unable to convert before Favour’s decisive winner late on.

Speaking further, the former Nigeria Super Eagles star rued the missed chances but promised to work on them.

“African football has really developed and all teams are strong now, especially in Youth football.

“We played a very tough game against Zambia and anyone could have won. Of course, there were some mistakes and you will definitely have many of them at this stage of development,” he added.