Relieved Ugbade promises better outing in quarterfinals

Golden Eaglets celebrating qualification to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Algeria 2023 African U-17 Cup of<br />Nations in Constantine…on Saturday.

Golden Eaglets coach, Nduka Ugbade, has promised to present a better team in the quarterfinals of the ongoing African U-17 Cup of Nations in Algeria.

Ugbade, who expressed relief after his side’s 3-2 defeat of South Africa, which gave Nigeria passage to the quarterfinals at the Mohamed Hamlaoui Stadium in Constantine, on Saturday, acknowledged that there would be no margin for errors in the knockout stage.

Saturday’s victory saw the Golden Eaglets finish second in Group B and earn an available automatic qualification slot. “It was a really tough match because South Africa is a really good team and they gave us a tough time. They have three players that are really good, Mabena (Siyabonga), Mkhawana (Vicky) and Dokunmu (Michael). They are very talented players and I was honestly scared of them at first,” Ugbade told cafonline.com.

He expressed delight that his side is finally firing well to score three goals, having struggled to find the back of the net in their first two games despite creating so many chances.

“This victory has restored the boys’ confidence. We needed such a win going into the knockout rounds and it is our belief that we can handle the pressure there.

“The loss to Morocco was also a good lesson for us. When you’re at a championship, you need a winning mentality, but also a match that provides good lessons along the way. Both factors make for a very strong and ready squad.”

“We worked a bit in training and we did some corrections. We realised that it was purely psychological and we talked to the players and we saw an improvement today. We might have conceded two