Eaglets Crash in Niamey

Golden Eaglets’ ambition to return to the summit of cadet football in the continent suffered a delay yesterday following the 2-3 loss to Burkina Faso in their opening game of the Zonal Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Niamey, Niger.

The Manu Garba wards were poor at the beginning, going down 0-2 within 20 minutes of the first half.

Eaglets however fought back to level at 2-2 before conceding a late goal that won the match for Burkina Faso.

The absence of the team’s captain Sani Abacha Suleiman who got disqualified at the weekend on the ground of failing the MRI test was very glaring.

Nigeria’s next opponents Benin Republic has already exited the competition as a result of the disqualification of 10 of their players who failed the MRI test.