UAE 2013: Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets Become the Most Successful Team at the U-17 Level.

Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets successfully made history by becoming the only team to have won the Fifa Under-17 World Cup on four different occasions by beating defending champions Mexico 3-0 at the Abu Dhabi stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday.

Nigeria opened scoring through an Erick Aguirre own goal, Kelechukwu Iheanacho extended the lead before skipper Musa Mohammed sealed a comfortable victory for the Manu Garba-led team.
Nigeria maintained a 1-0 lead into the interval and came back to put two more goals into the Mexican net. The Golden Eaglets are now the only side to have lifted the U-17 trophies on four occasions in 1985, 1993, 2007 and 2013.

Golden Eaglets Supersedes Brazil (Three Trophies) With Four Fifa Under-17 World Cup Trophies.

As expected, the final started as a cagey affair and the Mexicans kept and controlled the ball on the attack in the first two minutes but a fast counter attack by Nigeria led to the opening goal, Kelechi Iheanacho led the move and laid the ball in for Taiwo Awoniyi who then fed it on to Yahaya, who had a little help from Aguirre.

The Mexican midfielder mistakenly hit the ball into his own net in an attempt to recover.
The Eaglets extended the lead in the 56th minute as captain Muhammed unleashed a stunning which was too hot for Mexico goalkeeper Raul Gudino. The goalkeeper spilled a rebound for directly to the feet of Iheanacho, who made no mistake dispatching his sixth goal of the tournament.
Muhammed added a third with ten minutes left, curling a sublime free-kick into the top corner.
Coach Garba has now won the tournament as an assistant coach in 2007 and head coach in 2013.