Golden Eaglets thrash defending champions Mexico
- Abu Dhabi: Nigeria won the 15th Fifa Under-17 World Cup in style on Friday night, trouncing defending champions Mexico 3-0 at Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium to win the title for a record fourth time.
Nigeria surpassed Brazil’s record of lifting the trophy three times and also became the highest scoring team in the tournament history with their 26 goals in seven matches. This broke Germany’s record of 24 in 2011.
The Nigerians took only nine minutes to take the lead when Mexico defender Erick Aguirre put the ball into his own net when attempting to clear the ball from Musa Yahaya.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s only serious effort on goal in the first half was a header from captain Ulises Jaimes, which was saved brilliantly by Nigeria goalkeeper Dele Alampasu.
For Nigeria, Yahaya should have added another goal in the 40th minute, but his fierce shot hit the bar as the first half ended with the Nigerians leading 1-0.
The second period began with a frenzy of attacks at both ends of the pitch, but it was Nigeria who made theirs count, making it 2-0 in the 56th minute. Captain Mohammad Musa unleashed a wicked swirling shot that Mexican keeper Gudino simply couldn’t hang on to. He spilt a rebound directly to the feet of the most dangerous man on the pitch Kelechi Iheanacho, who made no mistake dispatching his sixth goal of the tournament.
With a quarter of an hour to go, Mexico managed to carve out a rare second-half chance, but Ivan Ochoa’s header from close range slipped wide of the post as the holders began to wilt under the ceaseless pressure of the buzzing Nigerians. Mohammad added a third with ten minutes to go, curling a sublime free kick into the top corner.
ROLL CALL
Honours
Fair play: Nigeria.
Top scorer: Valmir Berisha, Sweden, with seven goals.
Best Goalkeeper: Dele Alampasu, Nigeria.
Golden Ball Winner: Kelechi Iheanacho, Nigeria.
Silver Ball Winner: Nathan, Brazil.
Bronze Ball Winner: Ivan Ochoa, Mexico.
The 16th Fifa Under 17 World Cup will be held in 2015 in Chile.
History at tournament
Nigeria are the most successful nation at the tournament having won the title three times in 1985, 1993 and 2007. The Golden Eaglets have also reached the showpiece game on three other occasions without winning the trophy.
In 1987, after a not too impressive start in Canada, the Nigerians reached the final but lost to the then Soviet Union (now Russia) on penalties. Fourteen years later, France's under-17s stopped Nigeria from winning the tournament in Trinidad and Tobago. That match ended 3-0 in favour of the French.
On home soil in 2009, Switzerland stunned Nigeria 1-0 at the National Stadium in Abuja through Haris Seferovic's second half goal.
On the other hand, the Mexicans have played in just two showpiece games in 2005 and 2011 and have won on both occasions.
In 2005, goals from Carlos Vela, Omar Esparza and Ever Guzman ensured Mexico defeated Brazil three-nil to win the tournament in Peru while the Mexicans triumphed on home soil two years ago after hitting Uruguay 2-0.
Interestingly, both of Mexico's title at this level of Fifa tournament has been on American soil while Nigeria's feat of three triumphs have been in Asian - in China (1985), Japan (1993) and South Korea (2007).
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