By Amaechi Agbo

Nigeria’s Super Sand Eagles suffered their worst defeat in FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup after Tuesday’s night 12-2 loss to Brazil in Paraguay thus crashed out of the tournament with their tail in-between their legs.

The woeful outing of the team where they lost all three matches in the group stage summed up a year to remember for the Nigeria football.

In the other two group matches, the Sand Eagles were humiliated 10- by Portugal in their opening match, lost 6-5 to Oman and rounded up their misadventure with a 12-2 bashing from Brazil.

The tea scored a total of 8 goals but conceded 28 goals to crash out of the competition.

Rodrigo netted a hat-trick, while Bokinha and Rafinha scored a brace each, with Bruno Xavier, Catarino and Filipe getting on the scoresheet as well.

Egan-Osi Ekujumi and Abu Azeez netted consolation goals for Nigeria as the two-time African champions were sent packing with heads bowed low.

The Sand Eagles lost to Portugal and Oman in their first two games and were hoping to restore some pride by causing an upset against the reigning world champions, however, they were at the receiving end of a thumping.

The performance on the night at Los Pynandi Stadium meant the Sand Eagles’ suffered their heaviest defeat in the tournament’s history, as well as Nigeria’s worst outing on the global event.

Brazil progress as Group D winners and will tackle two-time winners, Russia, in the quarter-finals. Africa’s champions Senegal will battle Portugal for a semi-final spot.

However, it was a different stroke for Africa champions Senegal who qualified for the quarter-final where they will face Portugal.

Quarter-final matches
Brazil vs Russia
Senegal vs Portugal
Italy vs Switzerland
Japan vs Uruguay

Apart from Super Eagles who won bronze at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON in Egypt, all other teams that participated in various competitions this year performed below expectations. From U-20 World Cup in Poland, Super Falcons participation in Women’s World Cup in France, Olympic qualifiers by the Falcons and the Olympic Eagles, home Eagles non qualification to 2020 CHAN, home Eagles Crashing out of WAFU Cup of Nations in Senegal to Golden Eaglets elimination at Round of 16 in the Brazil 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup – it has been a year of unconvincing performances by the national teams.