Bunmi Ogunyale
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles were held to a scoreless draw in their second group game against South Africa at the ongoing 2019 African Under-20 Championships in Niamey‚ Niger on Tuesday.
Amajita had to weather a storm from the Nigerians‚ but the defensive discipline and organisation that coach Thabo Senong works so hard to implement held firm.
The Nigerian lads must beat host Niger Republic on Friday to cement their place in the semi-finals‚ while a draw could be enough if other results go their way.
Up for grabs is a place at the 2019 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Poland‚ with the four semi-finalists qualifying automatically for the global showpiece.
Senong’s side created little in the opening stages‚ with Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Keenan Phillips seeing half-chances snuffed out by the alert Nigerian defence.
At the other end Nazifi Yahaya shot into the side-netting in what was the best chance of the half for the Flying Eagles as the teams went into the break all square.
Nigeria dominated the possession in the second half but South Africa defending and good organisation of his backline kept them at bay.
Amajita were looking to hit the Paul Aigbogun side on the counter-attack‚ but too often they could not find the right pass on a hard‚ bumpy surface that made moving the ball accurately on the pitch a challenge. The Flying Eagles continued to pepper the Amajita goal with shots from distance in the closing stages‚ but their aim was wayward‚ bar one smart low save for Khubeka from Muhammad Jamil in the closing minutes.