Nigeria’s home based Super Eagles, otherwise known as the CHAN Eagles lost 2-0 to their Ghanaian counterparts over the weekend.
Coach Salisu Yusuf’s boys were beaten in the first leg of the 2023 CHAN qualifiers at the Cape Coast stadium in Ghana. The Black Galaxies now head into the second leg of the tie with the advantage over the CHAN Eagles.
Afrieye Barneh opened scoring in the 50th minute when he converted a spot kick. The victory was then sealed three minutes before the end of the game when Seidu Suraj netted the second.
Following the disappointing loss, Coach Salisu Yusuf has expressed his hope for a positive result in the return leg in Nigeria.
The Nigerian gaffer, while speaking during a post match interview, said “We can still turn it around, it’s possible.”
The home based Super Eagles need to bring their A game on Saturday if they are to turn the tide. Fans will be at the MKO Abiola Stadium to help inspire the Eagles to victory on the 3rd of September.
The team has now arrived Abuja and the players are already in top gear to overturn the two-goal deficit.
“We have arrived in Abuja. Preparation for the second leg fixture billed for Saturday 3rd September 2022 in Abuja begins in earnest” said the team.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s coach Annor Walker has expressed happiness over his side’s remarkable victory over the CHAN Eagles. He is also hopeful for a positive result when his team travels down to Abuja for the second leg.
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He claimed that his talk with the team was what did the magic against their Nigerian counterparts.
Addressing ghanasoccernet.com, Walker said: “In actual fact, it was a difficult game especially in the first half because the Nigerians didn’t allow us to play the way we wanted.”
“So, after the first half, we talked to the players to change their mentality and play aggressively. Like how Nigeria did in the first half. After the break, I think the players changed their mindset and that paid off for us.
“In all, I will say it was a difficult game but all the same God has seen us through. We have struggled in the first half in our last two games (Qatar and Nigeria) but against Benin, it wasn’t like that because we had the chance to score two early goals in the first half.
“Against Qatar, we struggled a bit until the second half because they scored two goals which disrupted us. Nigeria made it difficult for us in the first half and it is good that we have noticed our shortfalls. Going forward we will change the narrative,” Walker said.
Ghana has failed to make it to the last three editions of the CHAN tournament. Nigeria did not qualify for the last tournament in Cameroon.
CHAN Eagles will rely on the likes of Ossy Martins and striker Chijioke Akuneto to scale through on Saturday.
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