By David Kabiyesi
Golden Eaglets coach, Nduka Ugbade said Nigeria’s winning goal against Young Chipolopolo in Sunday’s Africa U-17 Championship was scored from an offside position, iwitnesslive.com can report.
Still basking in the euphoria of his lad’s 1-0 win in their group opener, Ugbade said the errors made by his players laid credence to the fact that he is dealing with youths.
“We created a lot of chances but we were unable to convert them and the one we converted was offside. Some of the passes that we made weren’t correct. When you are talking about the youth, development is the thing that we are talking about.
“You must be expecting a lot of errors, but I thank God today. The game was wonderful, but very difficult for us, at the end of the day, we got the victory but I told the guys that we lost. There is a possibility of that.
“With due respect to all the teams that came for this competition, your first match is very important because you know youth football is not about technicalities or tactical discipline or the physical condition that you put in place. All the information you give is psychological. You can see it today with a lot of wrong passes and me shouting on the line.
“At the end of the day, if we can win one more match, we will qualify for the quarterfinal. If we win the quarterfinal, we will qualify for the World Cup and we go ahead to the final. If we can win our last match, then automatically, we can win the trophy but if we don’t win the last match, we don’t win the trophy” he said after the match.
