Nigerian Golden Eaglets Sunday at the U.J. Esuene Stadium, Calabar. Cross River State defeated the Junior Eagles of Mali 2-0.

The Nigeria U-17 got the curtain raiser on 26mins, through Wilfred Nididi and the second goal was scored at the 88th minutes of play by Alhassan Ibrahim.

Eaglets missed several scoring chances though the Malian team were physical in their play..

Speaking after the match, Coach of the Golden Eaglets, Manu Garba said 2-0 was a good result, adding that it was good that the team did not concede any goal.

Garba said if the officiating remained what was witnessed, his team will beat Mali in the return leg in Bamako in a fortnight.

"To me the players played above average, though they created a lot of chances. I believe in the next match we will see a different Eaglet in terms of attacking.

'Today is just a bad day for all my top strikers. In the next training session, we will address all the problems we have before we go to Mali".