The Golden Eaglets advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2023 under-17 Africa Cup of Nations tournament following a victory against South Africa
The head coach of the Golden Eaglets, Nduka Ugbade, went over how his team was able to defeat South Africa in their last group-stage matchup in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, socccernet.ng reports.
Nigeria came from behind twice to defeat South Africa at the Mohamed Hamlaoui Stadium on Sunday evening, eventually winning 3-2.
After the triumph, the 53-year-old manager said that his team’s psychological toughness and ability to learn from errors helped them overcome the Amajimbos.
The opening goal was scored in the sixth minute of play, sending the Golden Eaglets down early in the first half. Although 16-year-old Charles Agada attempted to restore parity in the 34th minute, the wonderkid from South Africa capitalised on a costly error to give his team the lead before halftime.
Ugbade’s pep talk paid off in the second half of the game as Light Eke equalised the score with a beautiful finish in the 46th minute, and Abubakar Abdullahi’s goal a few minutes after the hour mark gave the Nigerian team all three points.
Following this, the Gaffer asserted in his post-game press conference that they were able to defeat Duncan Crowie’s youngsters by learning from their errors in their 2-nil loss to Morocco.
“We worked a bit in training and we did some corrections. We realized that it was purely psychological, and we talked to the players and we saw an improvement today. We might have conceded two, but I am glad we scored three,” Ugbade stated.
Nigeria ended in second place in the Group B standings, tied on points with first-place Morocco (six).
