Olympic Playoffs: U-23 Eagles Start On Shaky Note, As Morocco Beat Nigeria

Nigeria’s U- 23 Eagles, the Dream team V on Saturday lost their opening game of the CAF U-23 championship to Morocco 1-0 in Tangiers.

Missing a slew of regular starters, the Dream team V handled by Austin Eguavoen were always second favourites to claim all three points and duly fell behind to a Barrada strike on 25 minutes.

The Nigerian side lacked their usual flair and cohesion and found clear cut opportunities to come by as a result.

Morocco were far and away the better side as Nigeria struggled to produce any moment of inspiration throughout a poor game.

The Dream Team V will now have to improve greatly before their second game of the competition against Senegal on 29 November if they are to have any chance of qualifying for the semi finals of the competition.

“Yes we didn’t play well but we have seen the areas where we made mistakes and we will try to correct them,” a disappointed assistant coach of Nigeria, Stanley Eguma told SuperSport.com.

“Nigerians should not lose hope but continue to believe in us as I know we will do well against Senegal in our next game,” he said.