Brazil defeated Nigeria’s Flying Eagles 4-2 in a classic first Group E encounter of the 2015 FIFA U-20 tournament at New Plymouth’s Taranaki Stadium, New Zealand.
The match played in the early hours of Monday, June 1 took a different course from what the Manu Garba-led Eagles bargained for as the South Americans demonstrated their superiority with better ball possession, attacking play and strikes on goal.
At the end hostilities, goals from Gabriel Jesus (4th minute), Boshilia (59th minute ) and a brace from Judivan (34th and 82nd minutes) and goals from Isaac Success and Musa Yahaya’s in 10th and 28 minutes respectively put the result at 4-2 in favour of Brazil. It was the first defeat of African champions in the Mundial.
Signs that Nigeria would find the Brazillians hard nut to crack became visible from the kick-off. An opening goal from Gabriel Jesus in the 4th minute gave the Eagles a wake-up call. Although, Isaac Success made history as the first Nigerian player ever to score against Brazil at the FIFA U-20 World Cup with his 10th minute equalizer and Musa Yahaya’s thundering strike in the 28th minute gave the Flying Eagles a momentous lead, the Brazilians fought back before half time with Judivan’s 34th minutes goal.
With Nigerians failing to improve their performance in the second half, Brazilians seized the momentum, scoring twice through Boschilia and Judivan.
Flying Eagles coach, Manu Garba bemoaned squandered first half chances and second half capitulation. “It’s a huge disappointment. We carved out the better chances in the first half and we should have led at the break. The first 45 minutes reflected what we’re capable of. We simply made two mistakes that cost us dearly in the second period,” he said.
His Brazilian counterpart, Rogerio Micale explained how he turned the tide from the technical bench. “We started very well, but then the opposition gradually got on top and prevented us from playing our game. We shored things up in the middle of the park again in the second half and then looked to exploit the wings, which paid dividends,” Micale disclosed in his post match comments.
Nigeria’s chances of qualification from the group depends on how they overcome the Brazillian loss to get better results in their remaining games against Korea and Hungary.
By Olisemeka Obeche
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