- Home-based Super Eagles exit tourney in disgrace
BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI – Football fans have expressed their disappointment and anger over Nigeria’s humiliation in their second Group D match at the on-going TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2024.
The fans are furious that the home-based Super Eagles were disgraced out of the 8th African Nations Championship on Tuesday after failing to put any foot right against Sudan in 90 minutes of football in Zanzibar.
Taking to social media to vent their frustrations, some of the fans slammed the team’s lack of ambition, describing the players’ performance at the championship as totally unacceptable.
This defeat on the Indian Ocean Island, which followed an earlier 0-1 loss to Cup-holders Senegal a week earlier, means the Eagles Team B will pack their bags waiting to take the next available flight home no matter the result of their final Group D encounter against Congo in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday next week.
By their impressive victory on Monday night, the Sudanese moved atop Group D with four (4) points and a better goal difference than reigning champions, Senegal who also have same number of points, while Nigeria are mathematically out of the tournament.
The humiliation is a joint-record defeat for Nigeria in the 26-year-old competition, having endured a similar humbling scoreline in their loss to hosts Morocco in the Final of the 2018 championship.
The Super Eagles started on a high dominating play as the Sudan team fell back to defend at the Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar.
However, things went awry for the Nigerian team as Leonard Ngenge netted an own goal after 25 minutes with a headed goal after Abdel Raouf Yagoub’s shot had been parried back by the Nigerian goalkeeper.
The goal came three minutes after Nigeria’s goal by Anthony Ijoma had been ruled out for offside by the VAR.
In the 43rd minutes, Defender Leonard Ngenge, culpable for his infamous walking pace on the pitchl0, was at fault again. This time he handled the ball in the box and the referee did not hesitate to award a penalty to Sudan, which saw Walieldin Khedr making no mistake in converting to give the Sudanese a 2-0 lead at half time.
The second half saw Nigeria making some changes, but the Sudanese remained on top of their game as Yagoub made it 3-0 for them after 55 minutes with a cool finish. He added his second of the day seven minutes later to complete Nigeria’s routing.
Sudan Coach Stephen Appiah later brought on the fresh legs of Mohamed Tia Asad, Al-Misbah Faisal and Awad Zayed who helped contain out the Nigerian team.
In his post match comments, an elated Appiah said, “We are glad to win our first match in the tournament. We need to contrite and wait for our final Group D match against Senegal next week”.
An earlier encounter at the same Aman Stadium in Zanzibar saw Congo Brazzaville holding reigning champions, Senegal to a 1-1 draw.
Group D Standings
TEAMS P W D L GF GA GD Pts
Sudan 2 1 1 0 5 1 4 4
Senegal 2 1 1 0 2 1 1 4
Congo 2 0 2 0 2 2 0 2
Nigeria 2 0 0 2 0 5 -5 0
