Golden Eaglets crush Congo’s Les Leopards 4-0 in Abeokuta

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Nigeria U17 defeated DR Congo U17 4-0 in the second leg second round fixture of the 2015 African U-17 Championship played at the MKO Abiola Stadium on Sunday.

Goals from Suleiman Abdullahi, Victor Osimhen, Kehinde Ayinde and Samuel Chukwueze were all Emmanuel Amuneke’s men needed to breeze past the Congolese in the highly entertaining contest.

In attendance to watch the second leg encounter were Ogun State’s First Lady, Mrs. Olufunso Ibikunle who stood in for His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun as the Special Guest of Honour; Dr. Lanre Tejuoso( State’s Commissioner for Youth & Sport; Chief Mike Umeh, the NFF’s Acting President and his 1st Vice, Dr. Shehu Adamu amongst other important dignitaries.

The Golden Eaglets dominated the game right from the outset with some good positional play but failed to convert early chances. But on the dot of 30th minute, Suleiman Abdullahi scrambled the ball into the net for the first goal after the Congolese goalkeeper Sese Bia Israel failed to deal with a floater from Kingsley Michael.

Michael nearly added the second goal five minutes later when his long range shot was parry away by Israel.

From then, the Golden Eaglets mounted more pressure forcing the Congolese to concede a corner in the 42nd minute. Suleiman took the resultant corner kick and Victor Osimhen nodded into the net after Israel’s failed to hold tightly to the ball.

At the restart, the Congolese nearly pulled a goal back in the 47th minute but Djemes Diala’s angular shot was caught by Goalkeeper Akpan Udoh.

Udoh was also at his best few minutes later when he touched away Mutatu Mbedi’s well struck free-kick.

Amuneke pulled out injured Chinedu Ndu for Samuel Chukwueze and it was the gifted striker that provided Kehinde Ayinde to bury the ball beyond Israel for the third goal in the 67th minute.

The last moment was very dramatic as Abdullahi saw his ball hit the goal post in the 89th minute after the goalkeeper has been well displaced by Chukwueze. But Chukwueze still had the final word when he drove the ball into the net with almost the last kick of the match.

Meanwhile, the Golden Eaglets would now meet Gabon in the third and final round towards a place in the next African U-17 Championship after the latter eliminated Ethiopia on a 3-0 aggregate on Saturday.