The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria are through to the round of sixteen of the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup, after an astonishing comeback to beat Ecuador 3-2 at the Estadio Olimpico Pedro Ludovico in Goiania, Brazil.
The Eaglets opened the scoreline of the second group B match after a mistake from the goalkeeper of Ecuador gave Ibrahim Said the opportunity to fire the Eaglets ahead within 5 minutes into the game.
Ecuador however squared things up within 5 minutes later through an own goal from the Eaglets goalkeeper. The Ecuador team in the 56th minutes of the second half, pushed themselves to stand ahead of the Eaglets after VAR showed Charles Etim to have committed a foul within the 18 yard box which resulted in a penalty kick which the Ecuador player, Mendoza sent the Eaglets goalkeeper the wrong way to make it 2-1 in their favour.
The Eaglets fought back and recorded a comeback in the 84th minutes through a long range yet curved shot from Ibrahim Said.
The Eaglets kept fighting hard and in the 89th minutes got the reward for their untiring spirit through a hat-trick from Ibrahim Said in a blockbuster match to see Nigeria through to the knockout stage of the tournament with a game against Australia billed for Friday spared.
Manu Garba had named the same players that started the Hungarian game. Sticking to his dynamic 3-4-3 system.
