Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets crashed out of the U-17 AFCON 2023 after falling 2-1 to fellow West Africans Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals in Algiers.
The result meant the Golden Eaglets won’t feature in the under-17 World Cup that would take place later this year, with Burkina Faso completing the quartet of teams to represent Africa in the tournament.
The other teams are Senegal, Mali and Morocco.
The Nigerians have their poor finishing skills and defensive blunders to blame for the result.
The Junior Stallions went into a 2-0 lead over the five-time world champions courtesy of Aboubacar Camara.
He first found the back of the net from a rebound just before half time before completing his brace on 57 minutes from the penalty spot after a goal-bound Burkinabe player was fouled inside the box.
Abubakar Abdullahi, however, pulled one back for Nigeria midway through the second half with a simple tap in giving the Eaglets a hope of comeback.
But it was not to be as the young Nigerians failed to convert any chance in front of goal to pull level.
Eaglets coach Nduka Ugbade did not make any changes to the team that defeated South Africa 3-2 in their last group game and they made a fine start to the game but struggled to break Burkina Faso’s defence.
