Nigeria U-23 national team head coach Salisu Yusuf is upbeat that his wards can still pull through to year’s Africa U23 Cup of Nations in Morocco despite an insipid first leg match goalless draw against visiting Guinea at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium , Abuja yesterday.
“ We expect (sic) to win , true but we are lucky we didn’t lose today,” the former Kano pillars coach said in his post-match conference. “ We equally had a chance in the first half but I think the problem we had largely was because some of our players actually came late to the camp and we didn’t have enough time to train together. “
Nigeria will face Guinea in the decisive second leg on Tuesday in Morocco and Yusuf said anything is possible:
“ We have seen some weaknesses in their team and we are going to work on that before the next match. In football, anything is possible but we need to work hard in our decision making.”
Yesterday, Success Makanjuola and Timilehin Ogunniyi, who ran Tanzania out of gas in Ibadan in October last year, could not produce the same fiery performance as Guinea stifled Nigeria’s midfield play, created chances of their own and were solid at the rear.
In the 28th minute, Ogunniyi rocked the crossbar from a free-kick 20 yards out on the right, but that turned out the major effort of the Olympic Eagles in a tepid game that did not quite live up to its billing.
Makanjuola’s in-swinger in the 45th minute was parried from danger by goalkeeper Mory Keita.
In the second half, the visitors came quite close when Ousmane Camara hit the upright from a corner kick. Ifeanyi Ogba blasted a couple of opportunities wide, and in the 64th minute, Jonathan Alukwu watched in agony as Keita punched away his shot when Nigeria flowed forward.
On the dot of time, Nigerian defender Christopher Nwaeze was handed the red card for a second bookable offence, and will miss the return leg in Rabat on Tuesday.
Photo caption: Nigeria’s Ifeanyi Ogba ( 9) being tackled by his Guinean opponent Bangaly Cisse in yesterday’s U-23 AFCON qualifier in Abuja. Photo: Anthony Alabi/NAN