Nigeria national men’s U-20 coach Aliyu Zubairu in an exclusive interview with Footy-Africa stated that he feels hard done by the outcome of Nigeria’s opening game loss to Norway at the FIFA 2025 U-20 World Cup, taking place in Chile.
The Flying Eagles fell to an early spot kick converted by Rasmus Holten in the ninth minute of the game. Despite bossing possession, the Nigerians were unable to break the well-organised Norwegian defence, even as Tahir Maigana and Kparobo Arierhi both saw their efforts come off the sticks.
FT: Norway 🇳🇴 1-0 🇳🇬 Nigeria
A narrow defeat for our #FlyingEagles on opening day of the #U20WC. pic.twitter.com/GlfVpg17L5
— The NFF 🇳🇬 (@thenff) September 29, 2025
Speaking exclusively to Footy-Africa after the game, Zubairu felt a lot of decisions did not go his team’s way, even as he has put that behind him and is now looking forward to the team’s next game against Saudi Arabia on Friday.
“People keep talking about possession and how we dominated the game, but there is no real justification to it,” he said. “I just feel we were simply unlucky. Even after all the possession, we created chances to score, we hit the bar and the upright. On top of that, they were awarded a controversial penalty, while we had two clear penalty situations that should have been given.”
Chile 2025: Four Nigerian youngsters to watch at FIFA U-20 World Cup
“But they are the custodians of the law, they interpret it, and as far as I am concerned, both incidents were penalties. There is nothing we can do about it now. The game has come and gone. The next line of action is to keep our focus on the Saudi Arabia match and make sure we get all three points. I believe that will raise our hopes going forward. We are going to make sure we will strategize, put the Norway match behind us, and focus fully on the next game against the Saudis. A win over them will give us confidence ahead of the next game,” Zubairu added.
After the loss to Norway, Zubairu stayed back to watch the Colombia and Saudi Arabia game, which the Colombians won 1-0 to go joint top of the group with Norway.
A win against Saudi Arabia will put Nigeria’s campaign back on track, while a loss will mean there is little or no hope of progress for the Flying Eagles.
