Nigeria suffered a 1-0 defeat to 10-man Gambia in the semi final of the TotalEnergies U20 Africa Cup of Nations at Cairo International Stadium on Monday night.
Adam Bojang helped Gambia stun Nigeria in the 7th minute.
The Flying Eagles tried to fight their way back and were awarded a spot kick which Gent forward Ahmed Abdullahi missed on 86 minutes.
With one minute left on the clock Haruna Rasid was sent off by the referee.
Despite the numerical advantage, Nigeria failed to find the leveller.
The Flying Eagles will face Tunisia in the third place match on Friday.
At the Cup of Nations, Nigeria have been winners seven times, finished as runners-up twice and been bronze medallists three times.
At the global level, the Flying Eagles have been silver medallists on two occasions and won the bronze medals once, as well as reaching the quarter finals when Nigeria hosted in 1999, in Canada in 2007 and in Colombia in 2011.