Nigeria’s Flying Eagles have secured their fifth U-20 AFCON bronze medal, defeating hosts Egypt in the third-place match which took place at the 30 June Stadium.
The Flying Eagles failed to qualify to the final after losing to South Africa’s Amajita courtesy of a goal from defender Tylon Smith. Similarly, Egypt’s dream to lift the trophy on home soil was quashed following their defeat to fellow North Africans Morocco.
Motivated to secure the bronze medal, Egypt’s Young Pharaohs made a strong start to the match, scoring in just the third minute as Omar Osama Hassan netted his first goal of the tournament.
However, the Flying Eagles got back into the clash through a game-changing substitution by head coach Aliyu Zubairu who introduced Bidemi Amole and Divine Oliseh in the second half. Both substitutes combined a few minutes after coming on to level the scoreline — a goal that was the first Egypt has ever conceded in a third-place match.
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With both sides unable to net the winner after regular time and extra time, the game went into penalties and the Flying Eagles emerged victorious, scoring all four of their spot-kicks while Egypt’s Young Pharaohs missed two of theirs.
The result gave Nigeria their fifth U-20 AFCON third-place finish in six attempts following previous victories against Mali (1995, 2013), South Africa (2009), and Tunisia (2023). Their only loss came in 2019 against South Africa.
However, the game going into extra time means that the Flying Eagles only managed one open-play win against Tunisia in the tournament, drawing with Morocco and Kenya, defeating Senegal on penalties before losing to South Africa in the semi-finals.
While the bronze medal is an encouragement, the team will be wary of this statistic, especially with the FIFA U-20 World Cup coming up in Chile from September 27 to October 19, 2025.
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