It was described as a Mission Impossible and so it turned out to be: This night in Estadio Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Nigeria’s Super Eagles crashed out of the 2013 Confederations Cup after losing 0-3 to world champions Spain.

The score line did not accurately reflect the strength of both teams, though, as the African champions gave a good account of themselves but were ruined by a combination of poor defending and poor finishing.

To further compound Nigeria’s problem, injury ruled out forward Nnamdi Oduamadi, scorer of a hat-trick in the 6-1 win over Tahiti, who limped off with an ankle injury against Uruguay.

The ominous signs started coming too early in the game, with Jordi Alba scoring in the third minute after being fed by Iniesta. It soon got worse for Nigeria with injury to defendable defender Kenneth Omeruo, who had to be replaced in the 11^th minute by Azubuike Egwueke.

The Eagles held on till the 62^nd minute when substitute Fernando Torres nodded in the second goal. For the Nigerians, it was a catalogue of misses, with Brown Ideye and Mohammed Gambo rating among the worst culprits.

The Eagles in their desperation to reduce the tally surged upfront and got punished in the 85^th minute when Alba received a long ball in a counter-attack, rounded up Enyeama and slotted in the back breaker.

Nigeria thus ended the competition with a win and two losses, placing third behind Spain and Uruguay and just ahead of whipping boys Tahiti, who lost all their matches.

•Photo shows Enyeama.