Nigeria vs Gambia semifinal Preview: Flying Eagles eye 10th U20 Afcon final

The West African sides have achieved their respective primary goal which was to make it to the semifinals and automatically qualify for the FIFA U20 World Cup slated for May in Indonesia.

The Flying Eagles’ journey in this tournament has been one of clear progression as they bounced back to winning ways from opening day  Senegal’s defeat to win three consecutive games without conceding.

However, their next opponent have not even had any setbacks to overcome as Gambia’s tournament so far is one of pure dominance and perfection.

The Young Scorpions have won every single game at this year’s U20 AFCON without conceding a single goal and scoring nine times in four matches.

Ladan Bosso’s men will have to get past Gambia in the semis —which is quite frankly easier said than done— if they intends to win this tournament for the eighth time.

While the Flying Eagles narrowly edged Uganda in their quarterfinal win, the Scorpions were ruthless in their quarterfinal fixture, putting five past South Sudan, outscoring Nigeria’s entire goals so far  (four goals in four games).

Although, The Gambia has never won an AFCON title, they did took home the bronze medal in 2007 and 2021, with the Flying Eagles emerging champions on both occasions.

Nigeria narrowly beat Gambia 1-0 in the 2007 semifinal in Congo but went on to lose the final to the host nation.

Then four years later, they meet again in the group stage in South Africa where the African giants earned a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Larry Kayode and Ramon Azeez, as they went on to win that tournament.