U20 World Cup: Mascherano congratulates Flying Eagles following victory over Argentina

Head coach of the Argentinian under-20 national team, Javier Mascherano, has congratulated Nigeria's Flying Eagles following their record-breaking win over his side, adding that they lost due to two mistakes.

The Flying Eagles had on Wednesday night, handed the hosts a 2-0 defeat following goals from Ibrahim Muhammad and Rilwanu Sarki, thereby knocking the South Americans out of the 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup, to march into the quarterfinals.

Wednesday's victory at the Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario in San Juan became the first time that Nigeria had defeated a South American side at the U20 World Cup.

According to the Argentine football legend, he couldn't blame his players for their mistakes because they had given everything to win the game.

“We played the game we had to play and it couldn’t happen. Football is like that, sometimes it gives you and sometimes it takes away," Mascherano per Complete Sports.

"Today we have to congratulate Nigeria. The team tried anyway; we have nothing to blame because the boys left everything. Unfortunately, the two mistakes we had ended in the goals.”

Up next for the Flying Eagles is a quarter-final meeting against either 2019 bronze-medalists Ecuador or South Korea who got to the final in 2019, but lost the title to Ukraine.

Ecuador had finished as runners-up in Group B behind the United States, while South Korea finished in the same position in Group F, behind The Gambia.

The quarterfinal clash again Nigeria will take place at the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades in Santiago del Estero on Sunday.