U23 AFCONQ : All hope is not lost as Olympic Eagles can still qualify at the expense of Guinea

The Olympic Eagles of Nigeria played out a barren draw against Guinea on Wednesday evening at the National Stadium in Abuja in the first leg of the 2023 Africa U23 Cup of Nations qualifiers.  

Not only was the result disappointing but also the performance was annoying and this explains why there is little optimism going into the second leg that would be played at the Stade Moulay Hassan stadium in Morocco next week Tuesday.

While I acknowledge the fact that it has become more difficult for Nigeria to qualify, there is nothing to suggest that Guineans are vastly superior to our team.

Despite the poor display, we were still able to carve out chances albeit the best coming from a set piece from Ogunniyi Omo-Jesu. It is not time to write this team off. 

The team was hit with a self-inflicted crisis when some invited players were disqualified from being overage, this affected the preparation for the game.

With the 90 minutes played on Wednesday and the time available before the next game, Coach Salisu Yusuf and his crew should be able to prepare the boys better ahead of the next game.

We should not lose sight of the fact that all the Olympic Eagles have to do in the reverse fixture is to score and avoid a defeat and the fact that the game will be played on a neutral ground should make Nigerians hopeful that the team can still qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations. 

Abdulkareem Abdulhamid

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