By

Eniola Olatunji 

The Amajita of South Africa on Thursday night at the Suez Canal Stadium, Ismailia-Egypt stopped the Flying Eagles of Nigeria from reaching their 10th final of the African U20 grand final with a 1-0 victory.

Stellenbosch FC of South Africa Defender, Tylon Smith produced the lone goal that stopped Nigeria in the 66th minute after a pass from left footer, Neo Rapooo. This will make the second time Amajita will appear in the AFCON U20 Grande finale after 1997 when they lost to Morocco 0-1 in the final.

That made the 4th match of the Amajita (a Zulu word for Gentlemen) at the Suez Canal Stadium in this tournament all ending in victories as the team beat Tanzania by a lone goal; slaughtered Sierra Leone 4-1 and piped DR Congo 1-0 before stopping the Flying Eagles. The team lost two other matches at the 30 June Stadium.

Nigeria dominated the first half superbly but as usual, the goals failed to come and in the 51st minute the signs of Nigeria’s ouster showed when the youngest player of the tournament at age 15 according to CAF, Nigeria’s Goalkeeper was substituted after an injury by Soliu Yakub.

Nigeria actually had a great game with 20-6 shots at goal; 4-2 on target; 54-46% ball possession and stringing 391-351 passes but committed 25-12 fouls ; had 6-4 corner kicks with 1-2 yellow cards but the goals the coach promised will come did not.

In 2019 at Niger Republic, South Africa stopped Nigeria with a 5-3 win after 0-0 at full time to win the Bronze.

South Africa will face the winner between hosts Egypt and Morocco in the 2nd semifinal coming up also tonight in the grand final on Saturday 18th May at the Cairo International Stadium. Nigeria will battle the loser of that match in the 3rd place match before the final at 6pm the same day.

All the semifinalists will represent Africa at the world cup in Chile.