Stephen Keshi seems to be a man on a mission. After becoming the first Nigerian to win the Africa Cup of Nations title as a player and coach, he finally masterminded Nigeria’s first ever qualification for the African Nations Championship (Chan). Nigeria’s flag will be hoisted in the championship in South Africa in 2014 after Keshi led his troops to a 4-3 aggregate success against the Ivory Coast. The Super Eagles lost the second leg 0-2 to the Ivorians at the Robert Chambroux stadium in Abidjan on Saturday but head coach, Keshi was pleased despite seeing his wards come up short on the day. “We thank God we qualified at the end but my boys did not pick up till the second half and I must say to you that I am happy and this is a great experience for a young side like the home-based side,” Keshi said. The Nigerian side started the game badly conceding twice in the first 24 minutes before improving drastically after the break. Keshi conceded that Saturday’s encounter was a game of two halves. “If you say it was a game of two halves I may tend to agree with you because we started poorly largely due to experience and then when we came into the game they struggled against us. But that is football, we are just grateful to the NFF (Nigeria Football Federation), Nigerians and God that we made it for the first time to the Chan tournament,” he said. Nigeria now join Mauritania, Morocco, Angola, Ghana, Libya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso and hosts, South Africa as the first ten qualified Nations for the championships. Six more slots are still to be filled.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 23:47:33 +0000
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