Today, the fate of the Super Eagles B to qualify for the 7th edition of the 2022 African Nations Championship, known as CHAN 2022 will be determined when they face perennial rivals, the Black Galaxies of Ghana in a must win match at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
It will be noted that the biennial tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is exclusively reserved for players plying their trade in their country’s domestic leagues, unlike the AFCON tournament which is free for all and it will be held Algeria between 8 and 31 January 2023.
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The tournament was originally scheduled for August this year but was postponed till next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa as well as the already-scheduled 2022 FIFA World Cup in November–December 2022.
The Super Eagles B, also known as CHAN Eagles had lost the first leg in Cape Coast, Ghana as the duo of Daniel Afriyie Barnieh and Seidu Suraj of Hearts of Oak scored both goals in the second half to give Ghana a convincing victory. Trailing by two goals, the Nigerian side are now condemned to win the second leg in Abuja today.
As it is typical of games between these two football heavyweights both the Nigerian coach Salisu Yusuf and his Ghanaian counterpart Annor Walker are set again to have a go at each other on the sidelines today.
After the first leg loss, the head coach, Salisu Yusuf blamed the loss on the harsh officiating leading to the penalty while dismissing a repeat of the Super Eagles to qualify for the FIFA World Cup at the hands of the Black Stars.
“The World Cup miss has come and gone and here we are again. This is football. The penalty was a big blow to my team and we believe the referee was a little bit harsh for that penalty. We can still turn around the result,” he said.
Ahead of today’s must win clash, Salisu while speaking to the press said the players will overcome the fear and give Nigerians the belief they can beat the Ghanaians.
At the senior level, Nigeria has played 56 times against Ghana winning 12, drawing 19 and losing 25 games and with this statistics, Salisu said the players are committed to clinch the ticket.
“We didn’t anticipate what happened in Ghana but anything can happen. We didn’t have any friendly games before the game. I was among the technical group when we failed to clinch the World Cup ticket. This time, the players are very committed to it and we will overcome the fear. We have seen games where teams come back from 4 goals down, so it is very possible for us to come back,” he said.
He further said all the players, except Enyimba’s Sadiq Abubakar, are in top shape, adding that he will still assess the state of the squad to know the right way forward.
“The doctors will assess Sadiq to see if he can play in the next game, but we will also look at other options and work out a strategy that will give us victory. I am sure of using at 85% of the players that played in the first leg but subject to the medical team.
“The only assurance we will give Nigerians is that we are going to work hard to get the victory.”
“You see, we trained for only two weeks and put up a good fight in Ghana. So, I am assuring Nigerians that now that we know the team better, the result will be different. But the assurance is in the field when we have done it,” he said.
His position to overturn the result was further reiterated by his captain and defender, Tope Olusesi who players for Enugu Rangers said the team is ready to overturn the results.
“We have this believe to overrun the results. We are not under pressure as we have all it takes to win the game. We will turn around the results. The team has more confidence going into the second leg and all the players want to give their all.
“We know what is as stake and we believe in ourselves to come back from 2 goals down. The players love one another, there is so much friendship in the camp. We are not seeing this game as a revenge match,” he declared.
However, the Black Galaxies coach, Annor Walker, has promised that his team will defeat Nigeria at home to secure a spot in the championship. For him, beating Nigeria to the qualification ticket just like they did in the race to Qatar 2022 is the mission that must be achieved.
After the game on Sunday, the seasoned coach emphasized that he and his team would not allow Nigeria to reverse the outcomes in Abuja, claiming that the Black Galaxies had qualified for the competition.
“We are done with the first leg; we will be going back to the drawing board with my able assistant coaches tomorrow before we depart Ghana on Thursday.
“We also have some friendlies before the return leg, we will plan for a strategy because we cannot sit down for the Nigerians to overturn a two-goal deficit. We will make sure we win or fight for what we have to qualify the team in Nigeria. For sure we are qualifying for CHAN,” he added.
