Nigeria’s Flying Eagles suffered their first defeat at the 2023 U-20 World Cup after losing 2-0 to Brazil in their final Group D game on Saturday, Completesports.com reports.
Late first half goals from Jean and Arsenal forward Marquinhos, sealed the win for Brazil.
The Flying Eagles have now lost five of their six meetings with Brazil at the U-20 World Cup, losing five and drawing one.
They went into the game against Brazil having already sealed qualification into the round of 16.
Jean broke the deadlock in the 43rd minute after heading in a corner.
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Marquinhos then added the second two minutes into first half stoppage time as he finished off a swift counter attack.
In the eight minute Jude Sunday almost gave the Flying Eagles the lead but his volley came off the cross bar.
The Flying Eagles, on six points, finished as one of the third best placed teams.
Brazil, also on six points, topped the group while Italy, who defeated Dominican Republic 3-0, came second.
Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles could now face hosts Argentina or USA in the round of 16.
12 Comments
The assignment gets TOUGHER from this point on.
USA & Argentina — Two sides currently blazing hot; Ladan Bosso clearly has his work cut out!!
We should take it easy on Bosso..
It is better we lose and qualify as third to play USA or Argentina than qualify as first position to play an equally good side( no small team will qualify to the second round) without a player like Fredrick..
The absence of Fredrick is why we Lost today.. the njoku guy is not better than bameyi in that right back position.. bameyi gives us good long throws that can give us goals..
I still respect bosso.. we gave Brazil a good game with two shot hitting the cross bar..
This team will surprise many of us
Fredericks was deliberately left off the game because he was on one yellow card and if he received another yellow vs Brazil, he would be suspended for the first game in the knockout stages (that is, the Round of 16 game). It is very good squad management by the coach.
BEST WISHES TO THE LADS!!
Why go full blast on the attack, leaving gaping holes in the defence against an intelligent Brazil?
The coach.. tactical blunder makes the team to lose the match… you know Brazil will be more hungry…you went all defensive…. when you have players like sarki who could have capitalized on the error of the Brazilian in the defense…if this team fail to win the world cup blame the coach tactical flops…he has a youthful hungry team…it is not just their day it is very difficult to play Brazil when they one goal up because their movement with the ball is difficult to break down.
This team is full of Olodo, in terms of play, the fly eagles are better than the Brazilian with a good coach but they lack intelligence. Argentina is the host, USA are mature. God help them.
Two days ago i wrote a post about Nigeria adopting a wing overload tactic in order to stop Brazil because of their strength lies in the wide areas especially the right wing,well lo and behold i was proven right,instead of Ladan Bosso to first of all analyse Brazil last match and make the necessary adjustments,he decided to stick to what worked against Italy:Packing the Center with bodies which meant that our shape was a tad narrow in the first half and even more narrow in the second, Brazil dominated the right wing,time and time again our fullbacks were left isolated against 3-4 Brazilians on each wing most especially Solly Agbalaka who struggled against matheus Leonardo and that was the first of our 2 problems in this match,the second was Nigeria low duel rate which is strange considering how well Bosso teams perform when it comes to 50-50 duels,tackles etc. The boys were meek,half hearted in their attempts to win the ball back for large periods of the game,it’s almost like they were too respectful and that meant that the selecao could use their shear athleticism and impudent technique to full use effortlessly to exploit our weak defensive wing play.Had it not been for some combined efforts of the goalie and some last ditch defending we will be staring at a more embarrassing scoreline. What I see in this crop is a decent team that won’t wow us technically and tactically but will be an effective team should Bosso become more proactive tactics wise. As for the upcoming opponents I’d rather face Argentina who are too workmanlike than face the fluid technical machine called USA at least we tend to perform well against the albiceleste and hopefully we’ll get a positive result.
I’m not wasting my time commenting about this team performances and their big head coach, I’m not buying those two fluke wins. This team lacks real traditional Nigeria ballers, gra gra or no ball sense will never gets u far in any tournaments. Finally the fowl yansh is beginning to open. Nowhere to hide for bosso and his lads
One problem I have with these country called Nigeria is that they’re like Cameloen today when you win they’ll say I said and take all d glory even insulting others, and when you loss same Animals will come and condemn the team. Anyone with sense should know that this match could go either ways most especially after resting Fredick, anyone who knows the game will know that Bameyi makes noise but he’s not close to Fredick’s standard if not for political purposes that makes him captain and enjoying all other benefits over Ben Fredrick. We will win our next match against whoever because the team has become used to playing tough matches. For now some people should calm down and stop the fakeness only after taking the glory after the win over Italy they come here spitting trash.
I agree with you.. Suddenly the 90% of comments here praising them have suddenly turned opposite…..It now begs the question of who were these people praising cuz all I’m seeing is about 90% criticisms now lmaoo. You think Brazil came to play knowing a draw might not be enough for them and I don’t think we played to our full strength for a game a we just needed a draw to top the group and be safe cuz as we all saw yesterday, 6 points was not a guarantee for qualifying from our group of death….No other team in this tournament has faced two top teams like Brazil and Italy…..
Exactly the point there was no way we can say the team played to its full potential another point is that it’s an eye opener for the coach to know that Bameyi can not be relied on as CB because if you watch closely he caused both goals. First he was in no man’s land when the NO9 nodded the ball and the second goal he slided late exposing his keeper to a square play due to his poor timing leading to the second goal. On both occasions Ben Fredrick will not allow a sniff but like I said it’s an eye opener which is better noticed than later when in KO. SunnyB is the only one who stood by his words even after Italy win the other guys will be acting like Andropause and change their mouth within a fews days saying I said it that the team is not good after praising coach high and even saying he should be next SE coach, huh even GK that they said should be drafted as SE NO1 is now called Calamity after one match LMAO fear Nigerians O!!!
I am super critic of Bosso but I will not praise him one match after securing qualification, and then the next match criticise him for a loss most especially knowing that he rested a vital player for card risk, and the player absence made a whole different due to his wholesome talent, people also forgot that the officiating was not in our Favor neither was the VAR that didn’t spend time to confirm our first goal which would have made huge impact in that match.