By: Gracious Akujobi
Golden Eaglets Head Coach, Manu Garba was full of excitement after his wards turned on the style in an 11-0 win against Espanyol FC Academy at the main bowl of the U.J Esuene Sports Stadium on Wednesday.
The match was played in honour of late Assistant Coach of the U-20 Women National Team
Falconets, Chris Nwaehi who had long arranged the friendly match before he passed on in Lagos on April 29.The Port-Harcourt –based team that played a 2-2 draw with the Flying Eagles during their camping in Abuja , gave a good account of themselves but were simply
overwhelmed by coach Garba’s goal-thirsty guys.
Six Golden Eaglets shared the goals with a brace each for Chidiebere Nwakali; Theophilus Solomon; Musa Yahaya; Godwin Odibo while the duo of Adamu Abubakar and Najim Adamu scored twice and once for the first time in a national team attire.
“We are really impressed with the performance of the boys against Espanyol and it shows that this is not a one-man team,” Manu said wearing a smile. “Our happiness is drawn from the fact that the goals were not scored by the usual faces like Isaac Success, Kelechi Iheanacho and Chidera Ezeh.”
The match actually started on a promising note for the visiting team when they pressed for the curtain raiser but the tide changed when Eaglets’ Theophilus in his characteristic manner fired a shot that was pushed into a corner. Jacob Njoku, who scored four goals in the Eaglets’ penultimate game against First Best Farmers Football Club of Enugu, delivered a pin-point corner that was powered home with a header by Nwakali for the first goal. With the back of Espanyol finally broken, the Golden Eaglets were on cruise control much to the delight of the spectators and team officials.
“You can see there is a good chemistry in the team and we are delighted that the players are really responding and putting into effect all what they are being taught in training,” explained Manu. “Of course, we want a near perfect team because that is the kind of team that can go all the way to win the World Cup.”
Meanwhile, Jackson Utomobong, the captain of Espanyol admitted that they were outclassed by the Golden Eaglets’ revealing that the experience was an eye opener as they would be embarking on an overseas training tour soon.“ We want to thank the Golden Eaglets technical crew for the opportunity of playing against them and we can see that we still need to do more to become a good team too,” he said.
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