Nigeria's Golden Eaglets are 3 better than Rwanda

Golden  Eaglets’ Chidera Eze was the cynosure of all eyes at the U.J Esuene Stadium on Sunday when he came from the bench to grab a unique hat trick as the  Nigerian U-17 team complete the rout of Junior Wasps of Rwanda in a two-match international friendly.

The second match was always going be tricky following the Golden Eaglets’ 5-0 defeat of the East Africans last Friday and expectedly, the Junior Wasps’ French coach, Richard Tady made few changes with the firm instruction not to allow the host enjoy ball possessions.

That seemed to have worked perfectly for the Junior Wasps as they huffed-and-puffed the ball throughout a scrappy first half which ended goalless.

Golden Eaglets’ Head coach, Manu Garba (MFR) who had earlier rested some key players from the first game, called on the trio of Ifeanyi Friday, Success Isaac and Eze at the beginning of the second half and his permutations worked perfectly well.

Barely two minutes into the game, Eze was at the right place at the right time when his shot  from outside the box sailed into the net for the Eaglets’ first goal and  the player’s first  since he joined the team from the National Under-15 team.

 Two minutes later, the lad was back on the prowl again when he struck with his right foot off a pull-out from tireless defender, Ndidi Wilfred.

The Golden Eaglets could have added more goals but the fine efforts of both Umar Ahmed and Isaac ricocheted off the bar in the 60th and 65th minutes. But Eze was at his best yet again in the 78th minutes when he latched on to a pass from Isaac before slotting the ball behind Kimenyi Yves in goal for Rwanda.

It has been an extra ordinary week for the gifted Eze who last Sunday captained his native Riverlane Football Club to win the maiden edition of the Enugu North Under-17 Championship after a 5-0 thrashing of Dynamos Football Club.

“I’m very happy to score three goals in my first game for the Golden Eaglets and I really give all the glory to God as well as my teammates who assisted me,” said Eze, a big admirer of Spanish Chelsea’s striker, Fernando Torres. “The coaches told me what to do when I was going in and we really have to thank God that everything eventually worked perfectly for us.

“ For us, this match has come and gone, our focus now is the next match against Niger  and we are determined to  do our best by playing for Nigeria,” added  Eze, who rose through the ranks from the National Under-13 and Under-15 before berthing at the Golden Eaglets camp.