Nigeria defeated Senegal 1-0 to win the 20th edition of the African U20 Championship played on Sunday night at the Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor in Dakar.A first half wonder strike from Bernard Bulbwa was all the highly-talented Nigerians needed to seal a seventh title on African soil.
The host came into the game with the intention of avenging their 3-1 defeat to the
Nigerians in the opening day of the competition but were halted by goalkeeper Joshua Enaholo’s brilliance. El Hadji Niang had the game’s first chance when he came one-on-one with the Nigeria
goalkeeper but saw the attempt fail as Enaholo rushed out on time to save with his legs. In the 19th minute, Bulbwa trapped the ball nicely before delivering a spectacular
thunderbolt that caught Senegal goalie Ibrahim Sy and silence the deafening crowd at the stadium.
After the goal, Nigeria slowed the tempo of the game as Les Lionceaux dominated ball possession. Three minutes past the half-hour mark, the homers had a good chance to score after Sidy Sarr had squared to captain Roger Gomis, but the latter fired wide to the chagrin of the crowd.
On resumption of the second half, Senegal resumed with the same tempo and few minutes
into the game were denied by Nigeria goalie Enaholo who palmed away Niang’s goal-bound
drive to a thunderous applause from the pockets of Nigeria fans at the stadium.
After failing to make their dominance count, goalkeeper Sy made another superb save from Ifeanyi Matthew three minutes from time. The Flying Eagles held on to achieve a record extending seventh title in the biennial tournament.
Ghana’s Yaw Yeboah was named player of the tournament as Bulbwa got the man of the
match, while Musa Muhammed won the top scorer’s award with four goals all gotten from
the penalty spot.
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