By Our Correspondent

Seven-time champions, Nigeria have won the Group Stage Fair Play Award at the ongoing 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON U-20 tournament in Egypt.

“The Technical Study Group of the tournament named the Flying Eagles who have shown professionalism, dedication, passion and discipline in the group stage of the 23rd edition of the biennial tournament,” CAF said on Tuesday.

Even though Nigeria lost their opening match to Senegal Group A, the Flying Eagles were seen congratulating their opponents and showing high sense of sportsmanship.

Ladan Bosso’s charges started their campaign with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Senegal at the Cairo International Stadium.

They rallied back to win the second match against hosts Egypt courtesy of Solomon Agbalaka’s towering header.

The WAFU-B champions secured their second victory in Group A of the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations with a resounding 2-0 success over Mozambique in Ismailia to book a date with Uganda in the quarter-finals.

The tournament enters quarter-final stage on Thursday with Senegal taking on Benin while Nigeria’s Flying Eagles will battle Uganda.

The winners of both matches will qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia