• NFF, Oliseh apologise to Nigerians
Guinea caused the biggest upset of the on-going African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Rwanda by beating Nigeria 1-0 to edge out the Eagles from the competition.

Before yesterday’s game in Rubavu, Nigeria seemed almost certain of taking its place in the last eight having won four points to its closest rivals, Tunisia and Guinea’s two.

The Eagles needed only a draw to qualify for the quarterfinals, but they put up one of the worst performances by a Nigerian team in recent times, electing to defend rather than meet their West African neighbours.

That tactic backfired as it gave the Guineans the opportunity to mass in the Nigerian half and it was only a matter of time before the Syli Stars got the goal their dominance deserved.

The goal came just before half time through Ibrahima Sory Sankhon, who stylishly found the net off a cross from
Aboubacar Sylla.

Sensing that his team was at the verge of exiting the competition, Eagles’ coach, Sunday Oliseh, introduced Chisom Chikatara for Paul Odeh after the break, and the striker, who had scored four goals from the previous two games, made his presence almost felt with surging runs upfront.

Guinea goalie Abdoul Aziz Keita pulled the save of the day seven minutes from time by pushing out substitute Bright Uchechukwu’s thunderbolt for a corner and effectively killing off any form of hope for the Nigerians.

In the other game of Group C played simultaneously in Kigali, Tunisia thumped Niger 5-0 to join Guinea in the quarterfinals.
Speaking after yesterday’s games, Oliseh apologised to Nigerians for his team’s failure, saying, “We never planned to exit the tournament this early. The boys gave their best.”

The defeat was Oliseh’s second overall loss in charge of the senior national team after his side lost to a 2-0 defeat to Congo in an international friendly in Belgium last year. Also apologising to Nigerians was the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), whose president, Amaju Pinnick, reiterated that the African Nations Championship is “both developmental and preparatory for bigger challenges.”

He said that the Federation would now shift focus to the qualification race for the bigger Africa Cup of Nations.
“We apologise to Nigerians for the poor outing of the Super Eagles in Rwanda, but we toe the line of CAF, which states that CHAN is a developmental and preparatory competition. Of course, as Nigerians, we love to win always, and we feel bad when we don’t.

“I want us to take the positives from this tournament. A player like Chisom Chikatara broke onto the global platform and players like Usman Mohammed, Chima Akas, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Austin Oboroakpo and Ifeanyi Mathew confirmed their class.

“For me, it is disappointing that we did not progress. But the NFF will now focus on the 2017 AFCON qualifiers, and start preparations early for the remaining rounds,” Pinnick said.

The Super Eagles have a quick, top-of-the-table double –take against Pharaohs of Egypt in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying race, with the first leg in Nigeria on March 23 and the return leg in Egypt five days later.
In June, the Super Eagles take on Chad in N’Djamena before hosting Tanzania in the final round of matches in September.