The home based Super Eagles of Nigeria this afternoon crashed out of the African Cup of Nations tournament for home based players after playing out a 0-1 loss to the Syli Nationale of Guinea.
This was Sunday Oliseh’s first major test as the Super Eagles coach. While Nigeria needed just a point to qualify through to the knockout stages of the tournament, Guinea needed the full three points and got a win over the Super Eagles.
Sunday Oliseh started Sunshine Stars attacker Tunde Adeniji in place of top scorer Chikatara but the team’s lacklustre display in front of goal meant the technical crew had to rue that decision.
To show how badly the Super Eagles fared against the Syli Nationale, it took over twenty minutes before the team could muster a shot. Guinea took the lead after Daouda Camara eased past Nigeria’s defence to lay an assist for Ibrahim Sankhon who slotted into the net.
Coach Sunday Oliseh was forced to make an early substitution in the second half with the introduction of the team’s top goalscorer Chisom Chikatara who was unfit to start the match. Chikatara replaced Paul Onobi.
Despite all the Super Eagles did in the second half they couldn’t break through the Guinean defence and Oliseh’s men had to settle for third place after getting 4points from three games.
Coach @SundayOOliseh apologized to Nigerians after the match on twitter ‘We apologize to Nigerians for this loss, we never planned to exit the tournament this early. The boys gave their best.’