Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets lost 1-0 to Morocco in their second Group B game at the 2023 U-17 AFCON on Wednesday.
An early strike by Abdel Maali secured Morocco’s second win in the group.
The Eaglets will hope to bounce back from the loss when they face South Africa on Saturday.
Morocco got off to the best start as they took the lead just two minutes into the game thanks to Maali.
In the 13th minute a free kick was awarded to the Golden Eaglets but Emmanuel Michael’s effort went straight into the hands of the goalkeeper.
The Eaglets went close on 21 minutes but Abdullahi Abubakar missed from close range.
Three minutes into the second half Eaglets keeper Richard Odoh was called to action as he made a good save from a freekick.
On 54 minutes the Eaglets won a freekick after a brilliant play close to the goal area of Morocco but Hope Linus’ effort lacked power, goes through the wall but saved by the keeper.
It was the turn of Favour Daniel to miss from close range as the Eaglets continued to pile the pressure.
Yahaya Lawali had a chance to score for the Eaglets on 68 minutes but failed to convert.
The Eaglets continued to press for the equaliser but could not overcome a resolute Moroccan side.
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42 Comments
Clueless team. No single shot on target throughout the 90 minutes of play. Even our under 17 girls shoots and score goals shooting from outside the box.
My brother na too much hyping
Bro. You didn’t watch the game,. There was several shots on target
Na back of TV you watch? The boys gave their all, some days ain’t just your day, Abi how do you explain that a team that had only 3 shots at goal won against a team who had 21 shots at goal? Sheer bad finishing and bad luck. I will the boys well against our wives SA
The reason is because the team lack goal scoring sense. If they had played for another 90 minutes, they would still not have scored a single goal. The team has critical weaknesses that can and may cost them direly.
Why do all NIGERIAN teams relies on WINGERS? Too much wing play and their play is predictable!
Looking at the Moroccan match, all the balls was sent to the left and right wingers when these guys has being swarmed by the Moroccan defenders!!
The Moroccan players quickly realized that, the two wingers were Nigeria most dangerous players and marked them tightly!
The coach should have quickly switched play and use the midfield to build from the back! The Moroccan midfield was non existent and Nigeria have demolished
NIGERIAN local coaches philosophy has to change!
The Eaglets did NOT play traditional wingers but rather used the full-backs (virtually playing as wingbacks) to get width, which was necessary with the Moroccans clogging up the middle. The lads were just UNLUCKY. On another day, they could’ve scored more than a couple of goals.
Btw, these kids are playing a much BETTER brand of football than the poor gruel we were served by (reserved-for-Africans-only coach) Gernot Rohr and Tom Dennerby, and currently (except for the last game) by Randy Waldrum.
Wing play is Nigeria’s style of play it was not well executed today, it has served us well in the past. Do stick to what you know how to do best.
Anyone who is close to Nduka Ugbade should please tell him to shut up and get to work. He talks damn too much.
To hell with dominance. Of what use is tiki taka-ing all over the place without getting your opposition goalkeeper busy…?
I am struggling to remember a Nigerian U17 side that struggles to score goals. Ugbade should sit his “badass” players down and know some “badass football sense” in the final third into their brains and start generating some “badass” results on the pitch.
2 matches and 1 goal later and our “badass” team is staring elimination in the face if we are not careful. We cannot afford not to qualify for the World cup.
Nigeria has never been and is not an island of talented footballers, other countries have also come to this tournament with whatever “bad asses” they have to come and make a statement.
Mr Ugbade, less talk more results please…!
…. knock some “badass football sense”….
Attack attack attack attack.the eaglet are horses . They don’t get tired . Hence dey wil fall to a team that can defend their pole . Na wa . Even against Zambia it was the same thing. Na only ugbade Waka come . The Zambians almost use counter to score .the Moroccan did same and had a goal . Yet ugbade brain did not reset. Pls take him to factory.
The only advantage now is that the south Africa need to come out to score in the last game if not I can easily tell the score again against south Africa.
If ugbade like let him attack attack attack against south Africa he wil chop it.
He shud learn to study his opponent too and let the boys play a bit defensive in other to counter and score to . Remember the goal against Zambia came wen the wer a bit relax.whnen the Zambia wer offensive.
This game will humble the coach, even the first game it appear the team lack arrow head striker. Defense is ok, midfield is somewhat ok but the final third is zero.
I will prefer we have just two clear shot on target that get converted to goals than pressing your opponents hard and still losses the game in the end.
Reminded me of Spain at Qatar world cup with their pass-to-death brand of football and they went home
Eaglets had everything but the goals.Nothing to eorry very much about. They’re a great side!
Nothing good can come to Nigeria as long as APC is at the helm of affairs of the governance . What they known for and perfect for is rigging and manipulation. “No sinner will go unpunished” so said by the Almighty God.This is the beginning of failures and disappointments for another four years. APC is an agent of the devil.
An idiot in the house
Fifa is looking for u .
The Abdullahi and Daniel that he is refusing to substitute will cost him his job. Must you change your captain in every game?
For your information, the Flying Eagles and Golden Eaglets have their number 10 as bench warmers. A sad state of our football.
Whatever happens to the head will definitely affect the whole body. The wrongful of APC will rob Nigeria of her Goodluck. Take it or not you are going nowhere as long as world cup is concerned.
_ Nigeria 0:1 Morocco: Review _
With such high expectations and lofty ambitions going into this U-17 Afcon, this week’s slim 1:0 loss to Algeria leaves Nigeria’s World Cup qualification chances hanging by a thread.
With the worst possible start of an own goal with the match just 2 minutes old, Ugbade’s boys were unable to fashion a route back into the tie with more than 90 minutes to play – which to me speaks to their lack of resourcefulness.
It’s hard for me to see the direction of this team as they struggle badly to carve out neat, incisive and credible goal scoring chances.
Ugbade’s boys did ask questions of the Moroccan defence. But these were questions that Morocco had answers to.
Is it me or are we struggling to produce (young) players who are confident on the ball with credible take-on capabilities? For their first goal, the Moroccan defender took out his marker with fancy foot flimflammery before floating an in-swinger that crashed the back of the net off a wicked deflection from Ogboji.
As for our players, they seem to struggle to wriggle their way out of tight situations. Granted, the Moroccans crowded out our players particularly in the early stages but this in itself should have provided opportunities for Nigeria as it would have created gaps elsewhere for the Eaglets to explore. The intelligence to identify such opportunities was deficient.
The funny thing is, I don’t think the Moroccans were the better side – far from it. They were highly organised, well disciplined and, surprisingly, matched our players in the physicality department. But our boys gave Morocco a run for their money as the stat bear that out with Nigeria dominating possession and having a tsunami of shots at goal.
Crucially though, Morocco have now won 2 games where they had less possession and less shots at goal vis-à-vis their opponents , something Ugbade should take note of.
Whatever happened to the magic that Emmanuel Daniel produced in free-kicks? His efforts were out-of-this-world in the WAFU Cup last year but today, his free-kicks didn’t harm the Moroccans in the slightest. In fact, Ugbade’s boys were unimpressive in set piece routines all through the match.
After the Moroccan goal went in, I was eager to see how Ugbade and his boys would respond. They tried severally to bulldoze their way from centre midfield which were often curtailed. They went to the flanks but their crosses – high and low – were effectively dealt with. Their through balls from midfield were cut off and they were more than matched by the Moroccans in one-on-one situations. Our goalkeeper , to his credit, did produce, I think, 3 fine saves.
Ugbade did make substitutions and one of them – on the right wing – huffed and puffed and showed glimpses of brilliance but, ultimately, it all came to nought. We needed someone to take the game by the scruff of its neck, an injection of tactical genius from somewhere, but no, it didn’t happen.
1:0 it ended.
I will be lying if I said I wasn’t mildly disappointed.
Whilst I praise the boys for their effort, dedication and passion, they lacked ideas in attacking areas whilst they displayed minimal flair and very little flamboyance in midfield. They can also be vulnerable at the back as 2 mistakes from misplaced passes went unpunished today.
I wish them well and hope they get a result against South Africa on Saturday. But, on the evidence of what we have seen of them thus far, there is much work to be done to mould this team into a redoubtable, awe-inspiring outfit.
correction:”this week’s slim 1:0 loss to Algeria leaves Nigeria’s World Cup qualification chances hanging by a thread.” *Morrocco not Algeria sir.
As for the match from a tactical point of view Nigeria were very narrow on the ball,to stretch a deep lying block,you have to stretch to the width of the pitch which we didnt do,secondly the team is too vertical and straight line in its approach which will ALWAYS struggle against defensive and streetwise teams like morrocco because you’ll be forced to slow down at their goal area.
And thirdly since Coach Ugbade’s philosophy is germanic,it means no guile or flamboyance but all grit and graft. I’m sure he has some skillful players in his team,all he should do is encourage some flair and creativity to create a balance afterall everything no be fight. Love your reviews btw.
Sometime ago this platform had an “edit” button, a feature that is sorely missed – as you can see.
Great observations Codex. Good luck to the team next time.
@deo, first, the boys showed more than just “passion, dedication and effort”. They also showed considerable TECHNICAL skills (not sure what you mean by “flamboyance” but this is not a circus).
Meanwhile, not sure which game you were watching but our GK only had to make one somewhat difficult save (apart from the free kick in which a Moroccan was flagged offsides). Meanwhile, the Moroccans had to park the bus, put virtually everyone behind the ball, and needed a last-minute top drawer save from their GK to hang on to their fortuitous own-goal margin. Let’s not indulge in the typical Nigerian hyperbole – when we lose, it’s all DOOM AND GLOOM!
These are U17 kids, who made some mistakes but also did VERY WELL and were simply UNLUCKY not to have gotten anything from a game that they thoroughly dominated almost throughout. It happens even to the best teams.
9jaRealist, I think Flamboyancy is not solely reserved for the circus arena, perhaps you want to forgive me for not visiting as many circus shows as you.
I am not sure you read my article properly as I clearly injected the caveat that ‘I think’ our goalkeeper made 3 fine saves: a statement I still stand solidly behind.
Well, you are free to indulge in whatever hyperbole you so see fit. I hope you will be gracious and magnanimous enough to allow others indulge in whatever they so wish, after all, isn’t it no longer a free world?
Dominating the ball and not getting anything out of the team does indeed happen to the “best teams” as you say. It doesn’t mean that the fans of these so called “best teams” are always happy when this happens… Sir.
Correction:… Dominating the ball and not getting anything out of the game does indeed happen to the “best teams”…
@deo”They were highly organized, well disciplined, and surprisingly matched our players in the physicality department”. That is the complete summary of the whole game, but instead of them matching our boys physicality the surpassed our boys physicality and imposed their physical dominance with the referee looking the otherside.
The players were just unfortunate. They tried there best. The wing play should have started on time. The Moroccans didn’t come to play but defend which they did with there lives. Ugbade needs to start using the wings, and stop this gentleman passes they doing up and down. When that Adewale came in the attack began to gel. Well i pray they beat South Africa who are also tough
Nigeria did not a have point-boy. No #9. They will come home after the next GAME. South Africa will take them to the slaughterhouse. Ugbade mouth is too wide. He should be sent to sambise forest.
You cannot reap where you did not sow and that is what we as a country want to always do when it comes to football, we want to win every match and expect our footballers to win at every competition or bring home every trophy that there is in all competitions we participate in. Nigeria have not been able to qualify for the Olympics football competition since we won bronze in Brazil, we could not qualify for the home based CAF competition, we only wobbled and fumbled to qualify for the U21 World cup and now our U17 boys have started fumbling, the may or may not qualify for World cup, it may even get worse if we don’t go back to the school soccer competition that birthed the emergence of our FOOTBALL STARS of yester years that dominated Africa for decades. Our clubsides were beginning to win continental cups, our National teams were dominant both in Africa and Global stage, our footballers were crowned African footballers of the year back to back, these were all products of school/grassroot development. But for some reasons football development was removed from our school system by politicians who turned themselves into football administrators, instead of investing in the grassroot development of our football through the very school system that produced the likes of Mathematical Odegbami, Adokie Amasimeka , Humphrey Edobor Henry Nwosu, JJ okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Etim Esin, Peter Rufai, Ikpeba, etc etc they decided to invest in hosting of football competitions that resulted in Nigeria wasting Billions of Dollars half of which went to individual pocket of our so called football administrators who are only in football for nothing but fame and money. If we as a footballing Nation does not realise that our fooball is gradually dying then we should be prepared for more shocking defeats and eliminations from WAFU, CAF & FIFA competions by football minows. Let us take our football back to schools like it was in the past, Primary, Secondary and Tertiry institutions. The United States is a massive sporting Nation, all their sporting activities are groomed and developed through their school systems.
What are you going on about? Many of these players are still on secondary school. Even at the U20 level, FE players like Daga and Onuche are/were in secondary school. When you hear of these “academies” in Nigeria, often the players still attend school in the mornings and train in the evening. Let’s quit chasing shadows instead of substance. Reality is that so many African nations that used to be considered “minnows” have significantly developed their football, and as the level rises these tournaments will commensurately become more competitive.
Nduka Ugbade should start Light Ekeh in the next game, he looks like a real talent. He can dribble and shoot efforylessly with both feet. Give the boy more munites.
The Eaglets played well, they just couldn’t break Morrocco’s 1912 low-block style of football
Nigeria u17 teams don’t struggle to score goals. And Morrocco has shown others how to play the Nigerian team – s re an early goal and go block your posts. And players kept on running into traffic of legs and bodies I the final third. Yet our coach doesn’t gave an answer. So sad. At the end of the day, it is he who wins that history remembers, not he who plays hood football
As a Moroccan I watched the match, Nigeria were by far the better side like others have said on another day they could have easily had a few goals, good luck on your next match from what I’ve seen I’m pretty sure you will win your next match and qualify to the quarter finals.
If u watch the Senegalese team
They played perfectly the don’t loose the ball that much
They pass very well
They are well coordinated
So we should be serious with our self
Coach will not do everything
His duty is to select and make his statics ur duty as a player is to give ur all for the national team
Hmmm Footbalm is not won by mouth Football is won by Action on the pitch. Less talk talk and more action. I was saying Nigeria like to brag and live in a mumu fantasy of Giant of Africa even when they is nothing to write home about. Fro. Now on less arrogance more humility.thank you
What this team lacks is a target man, a goal scorer, one who knows where the goal is. Someone in the mould of Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Sani Emmanuel, Macaulay Chrisanthus, Chinedu Obasi, Femi Opabunmi, Wilson Oruma, Nwankwo Kanu, Peter Anosike, Victor Ikpeba, Billa momoh, Victor Igbinoba.
These days of hype, we hear that the main striker of the class of 2023 is better than Victor Osimhen at the same age/stage of career, however, this has not translated to goals.
We need a win or a draw in our next game against South Africa on Saturday, maybe where we are on the table is a blessing as we will be likely now to meet the winners of the other groups (typically first of one group meets second in another).
But lets worry about a result in the next match as if we don’t get what we need then all else is futile.
I think at some point in the game, around the 70th min, the coach should have switched Michael to the right to enable him take a few shots. It was clear that using the wings was not working. Michael had good chances for a few shots, but the ball was on his weaker side. Also, maybe I’m the only one, but I think substituting Linus was spot on. Once the smaller dude came on our attacks had more bites. Linus was good breaking attacks and marshaling the midfield, but he wasn’t really adding anything our attacks, and was doing a little too much.
Thumbs up Brotherman. Linus was tired. Michael performs better on the right. The team has potential but the coach talks too much. Lolzzzz
Ugbade should please go all out for three good goal puchers . These attackers cannot take this team anywhere. Even if we qualify for world cup, we will not go far in the competition. These boys play as if they have arrived, whereas they are preparing for the journey. All the wide margins of victories during friendliness were all fluke.
If you like go and borrow the likes of Pele ,Maradona,Ronaldo,Messy etc. You are going nowhere as far as world cup is concerned. APC leadership in Nigeria is a bad omen for the Nigerians. Gladly to tell you that you should be expecting more failures not in sports alone but in every aspect of life. Squirrel of Republic of Benin will soon come to Nigeria and beat your team there.
I watched the match and was so upset. Our problem is not the players but the coaches. Nigerian coaches are behind time. Their coaching philosophy cannot advance the course of Nigerian football in this modern age. Whether it is the senior team, age grade teams or any other national team, the coaches have not proven that they understand modern football. Let the NFF address the coaching issue in Nigeria.
Nigerian coaches are not flexible, they are highly predictable. Ugbade said before the match that Nigeria will chase their opponent for 90 minutes, that is what they did and lost. Poor technical endowment. Why can’t Nigerian coaches read matches and change strategies in a game?
The NFF themselves need to be cautious. Before the match they charged the coach to go all out against Morocco and we lost, same charge was given by the same NFF in our march against Ghana in Lagos and Nigeria conceded early goal. NFF should let coaches determine techniques and tactics of the game.