THE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)
Vice President, Seyi Akinwunmi has
appealed to Nigerian football fans to
forgive the Flying Eagles for falling to
reach the CAF U-20 Nations Cup billed
for next year in Zambia.
The Emmanuel Amuneke tutored side
bungled their chances of qualifying for
the competition when they lost at home
in Lagos to Sudan on Saturday.
The Flying Eagles won the first leg 2 – 1
in far away Omdurman, but surprisingly
fell 3-4 at home in Lagos. The Sudanese
went through on the away goals rule with
aggregate scores standing at 5-5.
The implication for Nigeria is that
Emmanuel Amuneke and his wards that
graduated from the U-17 side that
conquered the world in 2015, will not
have a chance to play at the Fifa U20
World Cup, since Africa’s representatives
will emerge in Zambia.
Akinwunmi acknowledged that the loss
was a painful one but was quick to
implore Nigerians to understand that the
team is a work in progress.
“We are very upset, not only because we
lost, but because we know that we have
a team that is capable of doing better
than this.
The talents that we have should have
seen us through, but that’s football,
sometimes you lose but these boys are
the future of Nigerian football and we
will not discard them, we will not throw
them away because we lost this match,
we should encourage them, to let them
know that sometimes we learn from ad
versity.
“I implore Nigerians to please forgive and
understand that it’s work in progress.
They will become champions of the
world in future. We’ve seen these boys
play, everybody have seen them play.
What happened on Saturday was just a
freak and that’s the way we see it,”
Akinwunmi said.
Amuneke on his part described their exit
as sad, even as he blamed the defeat to
ill luck.
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