Stallions hobbled by soaring Eagles

Nigeria are the football champions of Africa, and worthily so, after a tense and tactical 1-0 win in the final against brave Burkina Faso at Soccer City last night.

Nigeria (1) 1 - Burkina Faso (0) 0

The young and hungry Super Eagles added to the titles won by the generations of 1980 and 1994.

Two worthy finalists produced an intriguing final. Nigeria dominated the first half and took a deserved lead through Sunday Mba five minutes before the break.

Burkina Faso's achievement in reaching the final, at the expense of Zambia, Togo and Ghana, was remarkable enough.

But the Stallions were not content to rest on that laurel and pushed strongly for an equaliser against the more cautious Super Eagles in the second 45 minutes.

Stephen Keshi's men responded by dealing calmly with most situations that did arise at the back and Nigeria always looked capable of producing a second goal on the counter-attack.

Thirteen of Nigeria's squad are under the age of 24.

Bolstered by whatever talent is still to emerge from a country of 170million people, this team certainly appears to have the potential to fill the void left by Egypt, Cameroon and Ivory Coast and dominate African football.

The overturned suspension for winger Jonathan Pitroipia meant Burkina Faso coach Paul Put was able to keep the same line-up as the one that should have won in normal time in their semi-final against Ghana.

Nigeria's counterpart Keshi was forced to make one change, and a big one - the tournament's joint-top scorer, Emmanuel Emenike, was unable to recover from a thigh injury. Uche Ikechukwu came into the centre of Nigeria's forward line, with Brown Ideye moving to the right and Victor Moses, who did overcome an ankle concern, remaining on the left.

If all 87000 ticket-holders and hospitality guests had arrived it would arguably have been a record attendance for an Afcon final.

The previous highest was at the same venue in 1996 - officially 80000, although that crowd was believed to be closer to 90000.

The packed stadium provided the best possible backdrop for the final of Africa's showpiece football tournament.

The pace and guile of Nigeria's front three, which has provided six goals in the previous two matches, always seemed likely to trouble even a Burkina Faso defence that had let in just two goals in the competition.

From the seventh minute, when Moses's freekick was headed over by Ideye, the Super Eagles unsettled the Stallions at the back. Ideye should have scored in the 10th when, from Moses's corner, goalkeeper Daouda Diakite advanced and missed but Nigeria's striker volleyed over an open goal.

In the 40th minute Nigeria got the lead from Mba, scorer of a spectacular winner against Ivory Coast in the semis.

The midfielder collected the ball outside the area after a shot from Moses was blocked, took two touches on the bounce into the box and stabbed a volley past Diakite.

Ideye's shot from a tight angle was touched out by Diakite, then Bance hit a header from a freekick that went straight at Enyeama.

Burkina Faso had not reached their first-ever final to roll over and Nigeria found themselves absorbing pressure.

Mba tripped over himself when a clinching goal seemed on the cards and Nigeria almost paid for it, as substitute Wilfried Sanou's shot skidded across the goalmouth after the counter-attack.

But, as a champion team should do Nigeria, for the last half-hour, did shut Burkina Faso out.