BY ENIOLA OLATUNJI
.
Nigeria’s flag may not fly at the grand finale of the African U20 male football tournament currently going on in Egypt except the Flying Eagles can urgently get rid of the Kwashiorkor of goals plaguing the team for the team to overcome their bitter rivals, the Amajita of South Africa when both line up for the first semifinal at the Suez Canal Stadium, Ismailia-Egypt at 6pm on Thursday.
.
On current form, the Flying Eagles scored three goals in four matches and conceded two while South Africa scored seven goals and conceded three in five matches. This mean Nigerian attackers do not take advantage of the nice buildup of their defence with perpetual lack of connection upfront, clinical shots and headers at goal and good advantage of set pieces. But if the correction clicks on Thursday, surely the South Africans will be taken to the gulag even within 75 minutes of play.
.
Nigeria’s goal tender, Ebenezer Harcourt may again be the hero on Thursday as he has three clean sheets (not a goal scored against him in three of four matches) and saved two brilliant penalty shots in the quarters whereas his opponent has only two clean sheets and no gallantry in saving penalty shots.
.
To get to the semifinal, South Africa got scared by Egypt 0-1; piped Tanzania 1-0; slammed Sierra Leone 4-1; played 1-1 with Zambia at the group stages before a lucky 1-0 win over DR Congo in the quarterfinals.
.
Nigeria piped Tunisia in a drab match 1-0; played goalless with Morocco to show Nigerian teams always have problems with North African teams; played 2-2 with Kenya and after a gruesome goalless draw at full time in the quarterfinals, with defending champions, Senegal got a good day of Ebenezer Harcourt to oust the Junior Lions 3-1 on penalties as Harcourt saved two shots.
.
South Africa and Nigeria U20 boys played seven games between them since 2009 both won two games each with three draws. South Africa recorded 4 goals and Nigeria five.
.
On 20th August 2009 Nigeria won 2-1; In 2012 South Africa won a friendly match on 29th May by a lone goal; but in two AFCON matches that year, Nigeria played 1-1 21st September and won 3-1 at home on 7th October. In 2019 there were also three matches all AFCON Games, on 5th February both drew goalless in South Africa, on 16th February it was another goalless draw in Nigeria but at the continental finals in Niger Republic South Africa won 3-2 after a goalless draw at full time.
.
Nigeria may have to be extra cautious with South African record of pushing games into penalty kicks during knockout stages. It was done against Ghana in 1997 and Nigeria in 2019.
.
South Africa has 8 appearances at AFCON U20 male finals winning Silver once, Bronze once and placing 4th twice: and their best was their first stepping out in Morocco 97 when they beat Ghana 4-3 on penalties after 1-1 at full time before falling to the hosts Morocco in the finals 0-1; At Rwanda 2009 Nigeria beat South Africa 2-1 to win Bronze; at Zambia 2017, Guinea beat South Africa to win Bronze but at Niger Republic 2019 South Africa beat Nigeria 5-3 on penalties after a goalless full time.
.
Nigeria is appearing for the 17th time in the semifinals alone and hoping for the 10th appearance at the finals. Nigeria won the title 7 times; had two Siler medals; had 4 Bronze medals and placed 4th once.
.
The 2nd semifinal between Morocco and Egypt which is a North African derby is at 9pm at 30 June Stadium, Cairo.
.
Final is on 18th at Cairo International Stadium at 9pm but the 3rd place match will be decided before the final at 6pm. All the semifinalists will represent Africa at the world cup in Chile.
.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
#CAF #NFF #MFA #SAFA #EFF.
Comment here