AFCON 2025
Head coach of Nigeria’s Flying Eagles, Aliyu Zubairu says he takes full responsibility after his team crashed out of the ongoing FIFA U-20 World Cup Chile.
Nigeria suffered a 4-0 loss to rivals Argentina in the second round of the competition on Wednesday afternoon.
Two goals in the first and second half of the tie gave the the six-time champions a comfortable win over Nigeria in Santiago.
While reacting to the defeat, Flying Eagles coach, Aliyu Zubairu says he takes full responsibility for the loss as the team exit the competition.
“That’s football, sometimes it is like that. I take the blame. I take the responsibilities not the boys. The day they won they won. So, when they lose today, I take responsibility.”
However, Zubairu highlighted a couple of reasons why the team fell apart to the South Americans. He revealed that his team left a lot of spaces for Argentina to operate in.
“The early goal is part of what destabilizes us. We conceded a goal at a very early stage of the game. Even the second goal came not too far from the first goal,” Zubairu said.
“I think that was what destabilized the whole of our approach but all the same I believe the boys did not display positive character.
“Not really, what I think happened in the match is that the level of our fight anytime we don’t have the ball is not enough.”
“That was what was giving the Argentines the opportunity and they saw a lot of space to operate. So anytime we lose the ball, we are not fighting back quickly.”
The loss ends Flying Eagles chase for maiden Under-20 World Cup triumph while Argentina are on course to win a record seventh title as they take on Mexico in the last eight of the tournament.
