Nigeria U23 national team coach, Samson Siasia has expressed delight after beating Senegal 1-0 in front of their home fans on Wednesday evening to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Oghenekaro Etebo gave the Sia one boys the victory over the host country, and the former Flying Eagles coach has revealed that he was happy to have beaten the young Teranga Lions as a coach, haven’t beaten them as a player in 1992.
The former Super Eagles player also praised his goal keeper for saving Senegal’s penalty, including some one-on-one threats from the opponents.
“I’m very happy to win against Senegal again after the Africa Cup of Nations in 1992 and achieving our objective, which was to qualify for the Olympics. I think the ‘gods of football’ were with my team today because Senegal created most of the chances but they failed to score.”
“Emmanuel Daniel (Goalkeeper) kept us in the match as he made some brilliant saves today. On another day, we could’ve been embarrassed.”
“We did the best we could because we had lots of injuries heading into this match but I hope that Senegal can qualify to Rio so as to have a strong African representation in Brazil.”
“Creating chances and scoring them are different so I’m not concern that we allowed Senegal to have the best chances of the match.”
Meanwhile, Senegal coach, Serigne Saliou Dia has said he was disappointed his team failed to beat Nigeria’s Dream Team VI at home in their semi final clash, but insists they still have a chance to make through to Brazil next year.
“I’m disappointed that we lost against Nigeria today which could’ve cemented our place in the final and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“We’re still close to obtaining our goal which is to qualify for Rio. I have to congratulate the boys. They played well but we were not lucky at all. We created so many chances but were not efficient in converting them.”
“The third-place match would be a second chance for us to qualify for the Olympics because that is our objective.”
