Nigeria's Flying Eagles started the FIFA U20 World Cup with a victory against Dominican Republic, but Nigerians were not impressed by the team's overall performance.
Nigerians have taken to social media to react to the performance of Nigeria’s Flying Eagles at the FIFA U20 World Cup. U20WC.
Nigeria kicked off the quest for a first-ever U20WC crown with a hard-fought 2-1 win over debutants Dominican Republic on Sunday night.
The Flying Eagles dominated the encounter but had to depend on mistakes from the U20WC rookies to seal the come-from-behind win in their tournament opener.
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21:15 - 21.05.2023
U20 World Cup: See all goals in Flying Eagles 2-1 win over Dominican Republic (Video)
The Flying Eagles defeated Dominican Republic 2-1 at the Estadio Malvinas Argentina in Mendoza.
Nigerian reacts to Flying Eagles display
The Dominican Republic opened the scoring through a VAR-assisted penalty before an own goal and a second goal from another defensive blunder saw the Eagles wrap up the win.
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However, despite the win, Nigerians were hardly impressed with the team’s overall performance against the Dominicans.
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21:08 - 21.05.2023
U20WC: Nigeria’s Flying Eagles off the mark with win over Dominican Republic
Nigeria and the Dominican Republic kicked off their FIFA U20 World Cup journey with a comedy of errors match in Mendoza.
They took to social media to make their feelings known, with some of them suggesting areas the team must improve ahead of their next game in the competition.
Here are the three areas highlighted by some of them;
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3 Flying Eagles players to watch out for as Nigeria launch U-20 World Cup campaign
Drawn into Group B of the competition, the Flying Eagles are to face five-time champions Brazil, 2017 bronze-medalists Italy, and debutants Dominican Republic.
1. Teamwork
2. Selflessness
3. Be Clinical
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According to their reactions on Facebook, the Flying Eagles failed to play as a team. Here are some of them;
“They are not playing as team at all, only good in kick and follow no pattern even if they loose and play good football it will accepted,” Folorunso Soyinka stated.
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“From my own assessment of what i see of them the lack team work,” Okolo Isah added. “How can a player sight his team mate in a very good position of play with 80% chances to score yet they will not pass the ball to him and the coach is there standing without any instruction to them, if the play as a team the can progress to the next stage. Yesterday if they have played as team they should have scored up to five goals.”
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14:13 - 17.05.2023
'I am happy' - Ladan Bosso says ahead of Flying Eagles' U-20 World Cup opener on Sunday
Nigeria's U-20 side rallied from two goals down to hold Colombia to a 3-3 draw in the friendly in Tristan Suarez.
That Jude Jude Sunday guy is trying but he should learn how to pass often
Like they did well against a Dominican Republic team that's not standard,” another person said. “If they play individually against Italy and Brazil, it would end in disaster.”
“Great job but you guys missed alot of chances,: said Abeng Cyril
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12:57 - 22.05.2023
ANALYSIS Folarin Balogun: Should Nigeria have pushed harder?
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Pat Okupa agreed with Abeng as he believes the Eagles must take their chances going forward
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“Very poor midfield and they gotta be clinical and convert their chances.”
It is quite clear that Nigerians were not impressed with how the players related with each other on the pitch.
The Flying Eagles take on Italy next at the U20WC.
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