Joshua Odeyemi
27 November 2011
The Coach of Nigeria’s U23 team, Austin Eguavoen has blamed his team’s 0-1 defeat to Morocco on the loss of defender Kingsley Udoh in the early minutes of Saturday’s game.
Udoh was substituted after suffering a dislocation in a challenge with a Moroccan attacker in the second minute of play.
The Nigerian Coach said his team never got a hold of the game sfter then, bowing to pressure from the host country throughout the encounter.
The result has reduced the Nigerians’ chance of reaching the 2012 London
Olympics.
The North Africans were clearly the better side as the Austin Eguavoen-led Nigerian side failed to show any spark of creativity or cohesion during the cracker.
Nigeria failed to create any clear cut chance during the whole encounter as the host country dictated the pace throughout the game.
The Moroccans bagged all three points from a 26th minute penalty converted by Abdulaziz Barada after Emmanuel Anyanwu was penalised for a tackle in the box.
Nigeria play Senegal next before facing Algeria in their final group game.
To have any hope of qualifying for the Olympics, the Dream Team V must finish as one of the top two teams from the group stage.
AllAfrica – All the Time