FIFA U20 World Cup: Flying Eagles suffer 1-0 defeat to Norway in tournament opener
by Devesh Jaganath | by Devesh Jaganath
Nigeria left empty-handed despite solid performance against Norway
Nigeria’s U20 team delivered an impressive performance in their opening match of the FIFA U20 World Cup against Norway on Monday night, but they were unable to find the back of the net despite their dominance and ultimately lost the match 1-0.
The Flying Eagles got off to a quick start and almost took the lead inside the first three minutes of the match, when 18-year-old striker Kparobo Arierhi fired a powerful shot that rattled the crossbar. All matches are available on our U20 World Cup livescore tool, so be sure to check them out.
However, the Norwegians punished that miss just six minutes later when Rasmus Holten converted from the penalty spot after a VAR review judged that a Flying Eagles defender had handled the ball inside his own box.
From then on, the two-time silver medalists dictated the match, launching attack after attack, but the European nation threw every player they had behind the ball and put their bodies on the line at every opportunity to preserve their advantage.
Tahir Maigana came close to an equaliser for Ladan Bosso’s team just after the hour mark when he struck the post, while Nairu Salihu’s attempt in the 71st minute was a whisker away from finding the target but went just over the crossbar.
Nigeria also had two penalty shouts turned down by VAR in the closing stages. In the end, they recorded a total of 20 attempts on goal, but only two of those forced a save from Einar Boe Fasukanger, while Norway converted their only shot on target.
CAF Nations endure tough start to U20 World Cup campaign
Africa have four representatives at this year's FIFA U20 World Cup, but of those, only Morocco were able to come away from the first round of matches with a win, pulling off a very impressive 2-0 victory over Spain in Santiago on Sunday.
The Atlas Lions were forced to play the majority of the match on the counter-attack, with Spain maintaining 72% possession. However, they did so superbly and were rewarded for the tactics, with Yassir Zabiri and Gessime Yassine scoring in the 54th and 58th minutes, respectively.
Elsewhere, Egypt lost their opener to Japan 2-0 on Saturday. The Young Pharaohs are in action later this evening, and you can find all of our experts’ analysis and insights for their match in our Egypt U20 vs New Zealand U20 prediction.
South Africa, the final representative from the CAF region, held France at 1-1 for almost an hour, but Lucas Michel found the go-ahead goal for Les Bleuets 10 minutes before the final whistle and ran out as 2-1 winners.
