By: Onyekachi Chimezie
Head Coach of Super Eagles B team Salisu Yusuf highlighted the reasons he shunned the media after Nigeria failed to qualify for CHAN 2023 on Saturday night.
The CHAN Eagles had a Mountain to climb when they lost to the Black Galaxies of Ghana in Cape Coast 2-0 last week and had to overturn the two-goal deficit in the second leg in Abuja.
Zulkifilu Muhammed scored in the 76 minute to give Eagles B team some sort of hope entering into the last 15 minutes of the encounter with Ghana still leading 2-1 on aggregate.
NPFL top scorer for last season Chijoke Akuneto came through for the CHAN Eagles in the last minute of stoppage time to level the scoreline and take the Eagles to penalty shootouts which they lost 5-4 on the night.
Speaking of not wanting to face the press after the game, Coach SalIsu Yusuf said he was devastated about the refereeing decisions and didn’t want to speak and say something nasty.
“We have no reason to lose the match, to be honest. [We] should have won by five goals. Ghana had no single shot on target and had only one corner kick in the 76th minute.”
In a game which saw missed opportunities for the CHAN Eagles at both ends of the post also got Head coach Salisu Yusuf furious.
“We missed three open chances and got a penalty [not given] that the referee dragged outside the box to give a free kick. The penalty we missed (in the shootout) was like Victor Ikpeba’s penalty of the 2000 AFCON – It hit the crossbar and dropped. No one is sure whether it was in or out.”
Salisu was also mad that the penalty given to Ghana in the first leg, for a 1-0 lead, was never a penalty.
“We had a clear penalty denied us and our player hacked down and had to be taken to hospital. He couldn’t play in the second leg. They came and cheated us here (in Abuja) again.”
