24 April 2011
Two goals in the second half from Stanley Okoro and Ramon Azeez saw Nigeria U20 beat Gambia U20 2-0 in their final Group B game of the African Youth Championship at BidVest Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The win sees the Flying Eagles into the semifinals of the competition while Gambia exit the tournament and will head home.
The first 45 minutes started at a frantic pace and saw Nigeria with a good few chances on goal, but as the half progressed the match fell into a bit of a lull.
The Flying Eagles certainly dominated the possession stakes, but some sloppy passing from them in the final third of the field saw them unable to breach the Gambian defence.
The Nigerians definitely did not help their cause either because of their poor finishing when they did create an opportunity in front of goal.
One of the Flying Eagles best chances came in the eighth minute when Olanrewaju Kayode found himself through on goal and with just the keeper to beat, but he failed to take his chance. To be fair the Gambian keeper, Musa Camara, was quick off his line and smothered the attacker.
Another golden opportunity to score fell the way of the Nigerians in the 17th minute after some slopping defending by the Gambians presented Ramon Azeez with an opening from six-yards out, but he too squandered the chance firing well over the crossbar.
The only other decent chance of the half was a long range effort from Philemon Dabiel. He let loose with a powerful 22-yard shot that sailed inches wide of the upright.
For Gambia, they were really not in the game and would have to make some drastic changes in the second 45 if they were to find their way back into the match.
That, however, did not happen as Nigeria again dominated the proceedings after the break.
Finally, in the 67th minute they were able to make their supremacy pay off when substitute Stanley Okoro found the games opening goal.
A nice interchange of passes inside the box saw Okoro find some space ten-yards out from goal and he made no mistake with a clinical finish into the bottom left hand corner, 1-0.
The Flying Eagles then sealed the victory and their place in the semifinals of the competition when Ramon Azeez found his sides second goal in the 78th minute.
Azeez scored one of the goals of the tournament when he drove the ball home from a 22-yard free-kick, 2-0.
The game finished 2-0 and Nigeria sealed their place in the semifinals of the African Youth Championship.
