Nigeria Under-23 coach Samson Siasia says he is happy seeing his side qualify for the final of the 2015 Caf Africa Cup of Nations after a hard fought 1-0 win over hosts Senegal in Wednesday’s semifinal at the Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor in Dakar.
The Les Lionceaux had the better chances in the game and Nigeria had goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel to thank for staying in the game.
He pulled up some spectacular saves to first deny Keita and then was at full stretch to stop a free-kick from the attacker minutes later.
Nigeria will eventually take the game by the scruff of the neck after going ahead in the 71st minute largely helped by some calamitous defending from the Senegalese.
Senegal defender Ousseynou Thioune handled the ball in the box in a bid to stop Nigeria from scoring which earned him a red card and Nigeria a penalty.
Oghenekaro Etebo dispatched the spot kick with aplomb for the only goal of the game and a ticket to the football event of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
“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,”Siasia told cafonline.com
“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 (Nigeria 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.”he added.
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