Chief Coach of Nigeria’s Under-23 national team, Dream Team VI Eagles Samson Siasia has heaped praises on his players for their performance in the scoreless draw against Congo Brazzaville in Pointe Noire on Sunday.
Siasia who described the game at Pointe Noire as “difficult”, said the team demonstrated a lot of maturity and resilience to edge out the Congolese for the crucial Caf Under-23 Championship ticket in Senegal. He explained that he set up his team in an attacking manner in order to stop the Congolese from defeating Nigeria.
“Playing a match like this is always difficult, but then I knew our best tactics for this game was to go all out and attack, because if they scored a goal against us, we would be out of the race. My boys did what I told them, but then we missed a couple of clear chances that are unpardonable. However, we did the job and we are into the African U-23 finals,” Siasia said.
The Dream team Eagles ran out with a 2-1 victory against the Claude LeRoy-led side in the first leg a fortnight ago in Port Harcourt with the Congolese needing a mere one nil win to progress to the African tournament. Nigeria now joins Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa and Zambia as the nations that have qualified for the CAF Under-23 Championship slated to take place between November 28 and December 12 this year in Senegal.
By Olisemeka Obeche
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