BY SUNDAY AKINTOYE/Accra, Ghana
Nigeria Flying Eagles finally crashed out in the male football event of African Games following 2-3 defeat suffered in the hands of Young Teranga Lion of Senegal on Friday night.
This defeat shattered the Flying Eagles’ ambition to proceed to the semifinal stage after losing 1-2 to Uganda in the opening match and manage 1-0 victory over South Sudan.
Nigeria have three points, while Uganda and Senegal have nine and four points respectively on the table.
Prior to the all-important last group match against Senegal, the Flying Eagles led by Ladan Bosso prepared well for the last game, knowing full well that a victory or draw would give them ticket to the semifinal stage.
Charles Agada put Nigeria in early lead after he scored a spectacular goal in the 2th minutes but the goal was quickly cancelled through Idrissa Gueye who scored two goals to give Senegal edge over Nigeria in the first half.
In the second half, Nigeria quickly came back to the game when Favour Izuogu scored through free kick for equaliser.
The controversial penalty awarded to Senegal in the 72nd minutes and quickly converted by Famara Camara was what Senegal needed to qualify at the expense of Nigeria.
Our correspondent who was at the post-match conference and he spoke to Bosso privately. The coach expressed his disappointment with the inability of the team to qualify for the medal zone but gave many reasons for the team’s unimpressive run at the African Games.
“Nobody is happy with this defeat, and I particularly is not happy too, but let me say this for clarification. Our preparation for the African Games was too short. We only prepared for 13 days before coming to Ghana and the countries we played against had enough time to prepare so there is no way it won’t affect our performance,”
“If you see the way my boys played against Uganda and South Sudan, you will agree with me that we are not our best because the players are not really had enough solid preparation. Like I said I will continue to say it a tournament of this magnitude need a long preparation.
“I still repeat our preparation was very short so it really affected us in our first match but i can say we played better against Senegal unfortunately we lost the game, ” he said.
Asked how he rated officiating against Senegal match, the Flying Eagles coach refused to comment saying that it is the responsibility of the referee committee to assess the match officials.
“The match officials have officiated what they saw on the field of play.I am not in better position to say the refree is biased or not or say the refree is good or not.The match officials had done their best,”he said.
Despite the team’s failure to qualify for the semi final stage, Bosso went ahead to commend his boys for their resilience and doggedness displayed against Senegal saying that he would still use some of the players in preparation for WAFU competition.
“I am a coach, and I am a developer too. At this stage, I develop players for the senior national team. Many of my players that played under me are currently in the national team. These set of players are future players for the senior team, and I am satisfied the way they played against Senegal despite our short preparation,” he said.
Meanwhile Uganda beat South Sudan 1-0 to top the table. In another group, Ghana beat Benin Republic 1-0, while Congo defeated Gambia 2-1 to occupy second position behind Ghana that top their group.
In the semifinal paring, Uganda would face Congo, while Ghana battle Senegal next week.
