It was indeed mixed fortunes for Nigerian football yesterday as two-time African champions, Golden Eaglets picked all three points in a 1-0 win over Zambia to commence their Africa U17 Cup of Nations in Algeria on a promising note but Nigeria’s remaining club in the continent, Rivers United crashed out of the Confederation Cup competition after holding Young Africans to a 0-0 in Dar es Salam.
At the Stade Mohamed Hamlaoui in Constantine, lanky right-full back, Favour Daniel struck powerfully past the Zambian goal-tender from a goalmouth melee 14 minutes to the end, giving Nigeria all the honours in a largely average encounter that opened the campaign in Group B.
The Eaglets dominated for large swatches of the evening but ineffective short passes and poor shooting in front of goal denied them an avalanche of goals against a Zambian team that failed to bite.
Both teams hit the woodwork in the first period and Abubakar Abdullahi saw his efforts saved twice as Nigeria piled on the pressure.
The five-time world champions were set to take a two-goal win into their clash with Morocco on Wednesday but substitute Light Eke made light work of a penalty kick awarded two minutes into additional time and gave the goalkeeper no worries.
Nigeria defender Yahaya Lawali was named Man of the Match.
Meanwhile, Rivers United put up a good fight in the return leg of their Confederation Cup fixture with Young Africans of Tanzania to earn a respectable 0-0 draw but exited the second tier CAF competition on 0-2 aggregate.
They had lost the first leg of the quarter-finals 0-2 at their adopted home ground, the ‘Nest of champions’ in Uyo.
