Samson Siasia Hails Goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel Heroics

Nigeria U23s coach, Samson Siasia, has commented on his team’s qualification for the showpiece game at the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations against Algeria.

Against all the odds - on and off the pitch problems - the national team booked their ticket for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after beating Senegal 1 - 0 in the semi- final, thanks to Etebo Oghenekaro’s 76th minute strike.

“I’m very happy to win against Senegal again after the Africa Cup of Nations in 1992 and achieving our objective, which was to qualify for the Olympics, ”  Siasia said in his post - match reaction, according to cafonline.com.

“I think the ‘gods of football’ were with my team today because Senegal created most of the chances but they failed to score.”

The former Nantes forward heaped praise on Enugu Rangers shot - stopper Emmanuel Daniel for his heroics and tipped the Senegalese team to qualify for the Olympics after giving the Dream Team a scare.

“Emmanuel Daniel (Goalkeeper) kept us in the match as he made some brilliant saves today. On another day, we could’ve been embarrassed.

“We did the best we could because we had lots of injuries heading into this match but I hope that Senegal can qualify to Rio so as to have a strong African representation in Brazil.

“Creating chances and scoring them are different so I’m not concern that we allowed Senegal to have the best chances of the match, ” concluded Siasia.

The Dream Team shared the spoils with Algeria when both teams countries met in a Group B fixture last weekend.