Flying Eagles forward, Edafe Egbedi has admitted that the Nigerians have learnt their lessons after they were beaten by France in the quarterfinal stage of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia. The competition comes to an end this weekend in Bogota.

He told fifa.com that his target was to score at least five goals in the tournament.

Nigeria's Edafe Egbedi celebrates after scoring against Guatemala during their FIFA World Cup U20 Group D football match at the Centenario stadium in Armenia, Quindío department, Colombia, on July 31, 2011. AFP ...

“I scored three goals at the U-17 World Cup and I remember telling myself that I was going to improve and score even more at the U-20 World Cup.

My dream was to score five or six here, and though things didn’t work out that way, I think my performances were pretty good overall.

“That was my other dream: to play well enough to get spotted and earn a good move to Europe. And I showed that I can play for a big club there. I’m young and I’m only going to improve”, added Egbedi.

The pain of their 3-2 extra-time quarter-final defeat to was still etched on the players’ faces as they emerged from the bowels of the Estadio Pascual Guerrero in Cali, some 90 minutes after the final whistle had called time on their Colombian adventure.

“We love these people. We love Colombia. We made a good impression here and this support reflects that. We played as a team throughout the competition and we stayed strong. We’re very pleased with the support that Colombia has given us and we feel right at home. They wanted us to win”.

“It was a game we could have won. Unfortunately for us, we weren’t on top of our game and we didn’t put under the same pressure that we did other teams. We had high hopes but we left too much space and that’s why we’re sad. That’s football though.

“We showed we can go far if we work at it,” he added, taking the positive view. “Our dream was to win the title but I think we’ve learned a lot here, and the team will be more prepared by the time the next World Cup comes around.”