Kickoff (Cape Town)
19 August 2008
Belgium coach Jean Francois De Sart watched his team dismantled by a fearsomely composed Nigerian side, and had little choice but to tip Dream Team IV for gold.
"I think Nigeria have a big chance to win the tournament because they have many great players who can turn maybe a draw into a win," De Sart said at the post-match press conference. "The players are very strong and have a lot of experience to win big competitions because they played together in the World Youth Championship in 2005.
"I think they can win the competition."
The Belgian was understandably upset at the way his team was so clinically taken apart, with Nigeria unlucky not to have gotten close to double figures, but he did admit that he played a better side.
"We are really disappointed with the result. We expected more from this game but we played against a very strong team today. We know their strength, every player is strong and fast and we had difficulty keeping up in the first 30 minutes.
"But we had chances to level in the last 15 minutes of the first half and the first 15 minutes of the second half.
"And then they scored two goals and it became difficult for us."
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