The 19th edition of the CAF African U-20 Championship ended as it began: with Nigeria beating Senegal. The Flying Eagles beat the hosts in the competition’s opening game two weeks ago 3-1 and then added a 1-0 victory on Sunday to win their seventh continental title.
In the final, Bernard Bulbwa’s first-half goal was worthy of winning any championship as the 18-year-old flicked the ball over his head with a backheel and then volleyed the ball into the back of the net from outside the area according to FIFA.
In between their two matches against Senegal, the Flying Eagles beat Congo 4-1, dropped their only point during the tournament against Côte d’Ivoire in a 2-2 draw, before beating Ghana’s Black Satellites 2-0 in the semi-final.
Manu Garba’s team went into the final as the overwhelming favorites and the coach said they had one more rung to climb. “Our objective in Senegal was to qualify for the World Cup as the African champions.”
The west Africans had a number of star players in their side, most glaringly Taiwo Awoniyi, Chidera Ezeh, Obinna Nwobodo and tournament top scorer Musa Muhammed, and they could be even stronger at the FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 with more players prepared to play in the global tournament as per FIFA.