By Amaechi Agbo
A hat-trick from George Agha and a sublime free-kick goal from David Edeh ensured a comfortable start for five-time world champions Nigeria in the WAFU-B U17 Champi-onship, as the Golden Eaglets routed Baby Cheetahs of Benin Republic 4 -1 in Yamous-soukro on Wednesday.
Agha converted from the spot three minutes into the game after Boluwatife Thompson was hacked inside the box.
Edeh displayed fantastic football artistry to score from a free-kick in the 5th minute of the encounter.
The Eaglets were in cruise control as Agha bagged his brace in the 14th minute. The charges of Manu Garba were very dominant with a three-goal advantage.
Warris Soumanou in goal for Benin Republic was caught napping and his error of judgement gave the Eaglets another goal after a beautiful exchange of passes and drib-bles between Thompson and Edeh, which set up Agha for his hat-trick in the 32nd mi-nute.
It was raining goals and it was the turn of the Beninoise in the 45th minute, as a low drive from Jeremy Zannou gave the Baby Cheetahs a consolation goal.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s U-20 Boys, the Flying Eagles, on Tuesday defeated their Australi-an counterparts 3-1 in a friendly match played in Santiago, as part of preparations for this year’s FIFA U20 World Cup finals starting in Chile on Saturday.
A total of 40 coaches are taking part in a six-day NFF D-License Coaching Course that began in the Federal Capital, Abuja on Tuesday.
