In the first half, two contenders for the goal of the competition from Samson Lawal and Ibrahim Muhammad secured a 2-0 victory for the NigeriaU-20 national team, the Flying Eagles. The victory qualified them for the quarterfinals in second place behind Senegal, who beat hosts Egypt 4-0 to qualify with a perfect record.
The Ladan Bosso team got their first goal in the 32nd minute of the first half. Lawal’s piercing right-foot shot beat Mozambique’s goalkeeper Kimiss Zavala all ends up. It was just the tonic the Nigerian team required after subjecting the South Africans to continuous pressure from the blast of the whistle.
They doubled their lead on 41 minutes when left back, Solomon Agbalaka won back the ball and passed to Muhammad, who took a touch before firing beyond the goalkeeper’s reach from outside the box.
READ MORE: Flying Eagles Defeat Egypt 1-0 In The U-20 AFCON
The Flying Eagles were truly superior in the first half and completely deserving of their 2-0 goal lead.
The second half was a more even affair as the Mozambique team put further players behind the ball and tried to engineer breakaway attacks after making three substitutions at the start of the second half, but the Nigerian team contained those attacks.
Jude Sunday and Adama Alade came on for Rilwanu Sarki and Muhammad Aminu in the 51st minute as Coach Bosso tried for further goals. Four minutes after coming on, Sunday nearly scored a third for the Flying Eagles but for the goalkeeper’s intervention.
Nigeria will face Group B winners on Thursday, 2 March while Senegal will face the third-best team from either Group B orC.
In the other Group A match, Senegal beat Egypt 4- 0 with all the goals coming in the second half. Pape Diop scored a hat-trick. Diol opened scoring in the 59th minute, Ibou Sane scored the second in the 69th before Diol completed his hat trick with goals in the 73rd and 76th minutes.
Senegal finished the group with nine points and scored eight goals conceding no goals.
