Nigeria U-23 National Football Team known as the Olympic Eagles were below average despite edging Tanzania 2-0 (3-1) on aggregate to advance to the final qualifying round of the African U-23 championship, Morocco 2023.
The qualifying match against Tanzania played at the Lekan Salami stadium Ibadan on Saturday witnessed a poor first half with zero attempt on goal from a Nigeria team hoping to also qualify for the Olympics after missing out on the 2020 Tokyo games.
Second half goals from Ogunniyi Abiodun and captain Success Makanjuola in the 62nd and 70th minutes respectively was enough to see Nigeria through to the final round of the qualifiers leaving a huge question mark on the team’s performance.
Reacting to the team’s performance after the game was the head coach Salisu Yusuf who affirmed that the technical crew had a short time to assemble the team, also categorically stating that the team they assembled lacked match fitness.
“It has not been easy putting the team together due to the short period. The player are good but they lacked match fitness”, He said.
“It’s all about team building, There was no connection at a stage, How many days did we converge? It is not easy building the team. We won the game and that’s most important.
He further opined that they (Technical crew) had to build the them to a good level, but believe the team will continue to develop.
“We had to build them to a good level to be ready for the game, i believe the team will continue to develop because there is progress in the team”, He concluded.
