Nigeria’s coach Nduka Ugbade has said he was relieved to see his side come off the right side of a 3-2 thriller against South Africa and qualify to the quarter finals of the TotalEnergies U17 Africa Cup of Nations in Constantine on Saturday.
The victory saw the Golden Eaglets finish second in Group B and earn an available automatic qualification slot.
“It was a really tough match because South Africa were really good team and they gave us a tough time. They have three players that are really good; Mabena (Siyabonga), Mkhawana (Vicky) and Dokunmu (Michael). They are very talented players and I was honestly scared of them at first,” Ugbade said after the match.
He was delighted to see his side finally firing well to score three goals, having struggled to find the back of the net in their first two games despite creating so many chances.
“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. We might have conceded two but I am glad we scored three,” said the tactician.
Nigeria will now await the second placed team from Group C, either Burkina Faso or Cameroon, in the quarter finals in their quest to quench a 16 year wait for the title and earn a record extending third crown.