Nigeria’s Olympic Eagles have come short of making it to this year’s U23 Africa Cup of Nations after losing 2-0 to Guinea in the second leg of their final qualifying fixture in Rabat, Morocco on Tuesday.
After a 0-0 draw in the first leg in Abuja on Wednesday last week, the Eagles had the opportunity of more training sessions together to take the game to the Guineans on neutral ground, as Guinea does not have a venue approved in their country for international football.
Both teams fought hard on the turf of the Prince Heritier Moulay Al Hassan for one hour, before Guinea took the lead, and then added a second 15 minutes later to the consternation of the Nigeria squad and their head coach Salisu Yusuf.
Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow, for a team that emerged champions of the Africa U23 Cup of Nations in Senegal in 2015 and reached the finals staged in Egypt four years ago.