Nigeria’s U-23 Eagles lost 2-0 to Guinea in the final qualifiers for this year’s U-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Guinea progressed to the AFCON 2-0 on aggregate after holding the U-23 Eagles to a 0-0 draw in the first leg in Abuja.
The defeat means the U-23 Eagles will not feature in the football event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Also Read: Ghana Edge Algeria In Kumasi, Qualify For 2023 U-23 AFCON
Also the team failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after failing to go past the group stage of the 2019 U-23 AFCON.
And in Tuesday’s second leg against Guinea which was played in Rabat, Morocco, second half goals from Algassime Bah and Alseny Soumah sealed qualification for Guinea.
Bah opened scoring in the 62nd minute before Soumah doubled their lead with 15 minutes left.
The 2023 U-23 AFCON which will be the 4th edition will be hosted by Morocco between 24 June and 8 July 2023.
The top three teams of this edition of the tournament will qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympic men’s football tournament in Paris while the 4th-placed team will play the Asian Football Confederation–CAF playoffs to decide the final slot at the Olympics.
52 Comments
U see what I’m saying saying salisu yussif disgrace
Salisu Yusuf is a corrupt man… it is catastrophic what Amaju Pinnick did to Nigeria soccer… they left this man Salisu Yusus handling U-23, CHAN, Super Eagles… he has never qualified for any of the assignments he has been handed to oversee because of the syndrome of money for spots. Nigeria has really lost it…
You are so right, Suger. Xxx. Salisu Yusuf must go. We are going down as a football nation. Xxx
Sometimes I no dey UNDERSTAND this @JIMMYBALL….
Sebi YOU said “LET US FAIL WITH OUR OWN”
So why are YOU now COMPLAINING when “WE ARE FAILING WITH OUR OWN”
I don’t think Nigerian problem is just coaching, , We are abysmally lacking good players at all levels, Ladan Bossso, Salisu Yusuf, Jose Poseiro can a actually succeed if we have qualify players, look at Cameroon or Morocco, , They are filled with talented players, it makes the work of the coaches easier, Any coach you bring now to Nigeria would fail because we are just lacking quality at all levels of our football.
SO this is an honest question….You mean to tell me we don’t have better players than those playing in Azerbaijan, Malta, latvia, and Newham athletics (a non league club in the UK)? which is the core of the team the bribe taker invited.
Baba leave all this people alone. No dey talk again anything wey them like make them do with our football…. Renew Salisu Renew Bosso Renew Peseiro for 50years more we will focus on other teams and forget about Nigeria. No wonder we don’t have sponsors and struggling to pay Coaches….. Who wan waste millions on this nonsense and incompetent bunch of Coaches and Criminal NFF????
Honestly Nigeria is a failed state in all ramifications. I watched the highlights between Gambia and Mali and I couldn’t believe the lush green grass at the Gambian stadium and our own national stadium looks like shit….Bro abeg just watch the highlights make u see. I have to agree with you….very soon man go just tune out for naija football matter. Basketball both men and women is dead now and our football is almost dead too.
Sorry that game was played in Morocco I guess one of the two teams could not play at home .
Nigeria is a Slef sabotaging Country was it not at the height of our success in Basketball that the President pulled the plug on all basketball activities?.. what more do you expect it is the Nigerian mentality that is killing our glory we will always fail unless we stop with the bunch of crooks running the country.
SUPER EAGLE FUTURE IS IN RISK
Nowhere to test-run young future players before they graduated to Super eagle
Not at all. Current super eagles squad is still one of the “youngest in Africa” lol
@Emecco… I disagree with you. The league has good players that can compete against any African nation’s U-23 team if merit is the basis for selection. The coaches invited players from 5th Tier teams in England… Non-league team. There is Orban(Gent), Sor(Genk), Olesugun Olakunle(Krasnador), there are Nigerians in Slavia Prague.. there are young Nigerians in England’s Premier League 2 U-23. The guy Tim from Arsenal who was invited to camp in Ibadan clearly said the coaches asked him for bribe… that is what they all do. What are the criteria for hiring coaches into our national teams? See what Senegal is doing… if you hire coaches on merit they will deliver because they want to make a name… from NFF officials to the coaches they hire are all fraus… let us forget Nigeria football. This lack of patriotism and sincerity of purpose is the reason the Super Eagles players are not even committed, despite bribery and money for spots also being prevalent at the Super Eagles level… when Salisu Yusuf put out his list of invited players… he was asked why he did not invite Gift Orban… he said, he does not know the player, can you imagine such utter nonsense? Boniface and Orban, as well as Sor, Moses Usor and a Olakunle Olusegun of Krasnador… all could have played because they are eligible. The coaches are just flatly corrupt… Kennedy Boboye and Salisu Yusuf. They invited players from unknown clubs in Latvia and obscure countries because those ones agreed to pay for their spots… this is what happens all the time.
Oga @Jimmyball, stop complaining now, this is what you want. “let is fail with our own” and we are failing with our own, so what is the fuss? When we are shouting then you and your gang keep supporting evil, now we are all in this together. Let’s enjoy the ride. Practical nonsense, una never see anything
Not only football. In all facet of life.It has been like that since the advent of democracy that gave so much power to the so call senators , house of rep and ministers. Without written note from them u go no where. And what matters worse is that these men are so callous , indiscipline and mendacious, They don’t care about the progress of the country. They put selfish interest first before nation interest
God bless you my brother our guys here and the rest part of the country don’t get it, even our so called sports journalist whether in the print or electronic media banter over coaches and playing turf and sometimes investment on our league. The truth of the matter is “YOU CANNOT GIVE WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE” We are a country of 200+ million people and suddenly we are unable to raise a team of 22 to 30 players to beat teams from smaller countries like E. Guinea, S.leone, Cape verd , pretty soon is going to be TOGO, NIGER , BENIN, Comoros etc. WHY? Our corrupt sports administrators decided to take sports out of our school system which hitherto was the bedrock of sports development in Nigeria. When i was growing up we only heard of how black stars of Ghana used to beat the Green Eagles because our National teams dominated Ghana for many many years with talents groomed from primary to secondary schools where they get a lot of experience and tactical awareness from various school competitions and matches It all started from the era of AMOS ADAMU when Nigeria jettisoned grassroot development for hosting of competitions and we spent billions to host many Football competitions which gave them opportunity to steal massively . Until Nigeria takes her football back to schools – Primary, secondary and Tertiary institutions for development all the football teams will continue to embarrass the country. Football Academies will not help us because we do not have the finances to establish and maintain football academies in different parts of Nigeria like they do in europe.If we take our football back to school like it used to be in the past it will throw up lots of talented players that will take the World by storm and it will help the local league because the student will move with their stars from school to different clubsides that sign them on, before you know it our stadiums will be full again.
Selection process into our age-grade teams is riddled with corruption. If you have an idea of the business the coaches do (money for spot) with our teams, you will be shocked. So I am happy they did not qualify. A competent coach will invite players based on competence and form not on how much they can be offered by the players. There are talents in the Nigerian League ( I have seen my fair share) and very young too.
How do you plan to win with bad coaches, horrible NFF that don’t have any knowlege about football all the are complaning is that theh don’t have money. The are only looking for money to steal. Nigeria football will never improve with this kind of administrators. Saliusi yusfu has failed in all jobs and they continue keeping him so who is the problem of Nigeria football= NFF
Blame the NFF who doesn’t pay this coaches, how do you expect people to work on hungry stomachs for months! They will look for a means of survival which is wrong. They have family to feed and people looking up to them. Apart from some of them having corrupt practices as personal character, oweing them salaries and wages for months is a contributing factor.
How do want those boys to be committed when they are not well taken care of am 100% sure their last matches allowance and bonus has not been paid.
Those guys are even playing to market themselves, there is no patriotism in Nigerians any more because our government and administrators are just evil.
Since they are aware that Nff aren’t worthy to be trusted why accepting the coaching offers. Since Nigeria don’t ever want to do away with anything concerning Corruption and it’s environs , it gonna pull Nigeria down to her last element.
Is too late to cry .the hand writing was clear .even before two weeks before the first leg . Something is wrong with the soul of Nigeria packaging. Solution any team that want to represent the country must be in camp for 3 weeks not a week or two anymore. At least before a game.even super eagles. Anything apart from this u people wil keep complaining of losses to even the least team in Africa. Namibian is coming to beat super eagles home and away if care is not taking.lol
I don’t blame the fool that was appointed as the coach, I blame the useless NFF that appointed him.
We all knew that the team would fail the moment he was appointed as under 23 team coach.
May God judge all those that are playing politics with Nigeria football.
The country of destiny killers. Anyplace that ignores the almighty God/Allah in every ramifications is bound to fail. Showing corrupt practices to future generations and doing the wrong things in right ways and right things in a wrong way, that country is killing future generation, presents leaders are leading our nation tomorrow’s leaders astray are destiny killers. Nigeria is heading towards disaster because her future is gloomy. Stop praying, it’s waste of time, there’s no God in country
What is more baffling is the deafening silence of Amaju Pinnick in all the messs he left behind. It’s still a mystery why EFCC has not invited and detained him.
And why would an outgoing NFF president and his board appoint weak and cheap coaches for all teams for the incoming administration to inherit? What kind of law is that?
After this debacle, Salisu will be retained. Paseiro will probably be retained and handed a new contract in June. Bosso will be retained. Hopeless.
And this Gusau just looks too docile, inactive, and a typical government civil service-style bureaucratic ‘yes-man’. Same same. Their mantra is “Maintain the corrupt status quo. Chop your own and leave for the next man to chop too.” SMH
What is even more painful is that this match was technically on a neutral ground – Morocco.
Salisu failed with CUAN Eagles. Was moved to U23 and unsurprisingly failed there too. Where next will they might be him to fail there too? SE to replace the sacked Finidi George.
How many times will NFF recycle a failure? Are they expecting a suddenly success from him? Nigeria matter just dey weak person.
When they are being owed backlog of salaries, why would they have the mind to let the incompetent coaches go? They are the bargaining chips for the government.
Nigeria football never fall finish else people go dey resign at gun point!
Will FIFA do anything to Nigeria when the dumb coaches resign by hook or crook? No. Our football disgraceful shame cup never full yet.
Previous an current sport administrator in Nigeria are supposed to be dealt with on a serious note. Followed by corrupted Coaches like Salisu and the rest before any reform can begin, this has to be handled first.
If this matter are not look into, sorry is what i will say to Nigerian Football lovers.
No one can help Nigerian Teams progress unless all the bad weeds are uprooted. If we’re hire Antonio Conte or Zidane today, we will still have some problem to deal with eventhough the aforementioned will improve the team as a whole but with bad management, their will always be a margin for failure. How i wish those fans that destroy Abuja stadium the last time were able to get their hands on that bald headed Pinnick instead of destroying the stadium
My humble advice is for everyone to adopt am European clubs and watch Champions league with other domestic league in Europe. Forget SE because they won’t even smell any final talkless of winning a trophy.
It’s so painful but what do we do when the NFF with their clueless and corrupted Coaches have decided to be unfortunate.
l told you guys that Nigerian football is dead. l have moved on. l cannot continue to follow a bland and corrupt people like this. Pinnick, Omo9ja, Ugo and one other individual are responsible for Nigeria woes. The coaches are so corrupt to high heavens. And they are so stupid as well.
You forgot to add jimmyball
Let this be the LAST time one SALISU YUSUF will be engaged as coach of any of the national teams. I think he has reached retirement age and should so retire! If this man is engaged again, I will make NFF ungovernable for those executives. Good riddance!
What has the coaches or NFF got to do with all these failures, some said we don’t have quality players anywhere, that’s ridiculous. How many African teams have the same kind of players we have? Look at the super eagles they can’t even score an open goal against a low team like Guinea-Bissau, even with all the stars we are parading. How do the NFF or the coaches stop the players from scoring upon all the chances they created? Our players tend to balloon their shot ‘Faka toom”.This trend all accross our national teams, including the Falcons. The have all kind of chances to score but they can’t. I will blame our players our failures period!
I never believe in yussuf, boso and eguavon for any of our national.
They can not turn things around when is needed most.
Salisu has failed at this once , how can the NFF appoint him when he had failed horribly once. This is rediculous ad rflects corruption or incmpetence in selection of coaches.
Nigerian football is currently an eyesore across all levels. It is becoming a huge waste of time to continue following these waning brands that bring nothing but sadness and disappointment to the Fanbase.
It’s hard to see Bosso and Waldrum achieve anything other than monumental failures in their respective world cups. Ugbade might just do something manageable with the Under-17s.
It’s a terrible state of affairs. My patience is running out.
The worst set of its kind is that among the whole CAF U23 qualifying matches were all available for transmitting or live streaming via you tube or other live streaming medium only the Nigerian match. I don’t know why the owner of this failed and grounded Company refused to the needful
The young Nigerian player either rushes to Europe to escape poverty or lies about umbis age to make the age grade teams.The NFF is too unintellugent and corrupt to find solutions.
They said they want to avert disaster not knowing that they are preparing for the greatest calamity. This is what Pinnick, some ex player who couldn’t talk again now and some disrespectful fans caused.When we were warning them they refusedto listen. Like I always said coaches and players are not our problem but bad administration even if we hire Guardiola we will still fail. Imagine that a shameless of a thing called national stadium who notice that even EQG pitch is far better than that fraud they said Dangote spend billions on? even Pessiero complained about that pitch in one of his interview today. I could remember whenever Rohr used to complain about poor pitch then they start calling him names now the one whom they said is better than him equally lost on the same pitch. Imagine Nigeria failed to qualify for Olympic back to back.
Lol this’s just the beginning we warned you guys about Salisu, Bosso, Dikko and Gusau about their backwardness and Abokilization agenda, nobody cares to listen. some of u guys even called him the best local coach. I’m boldly telling you guys again, don’t ever entrust power and responsibilities with Hausa/ Fulani musilims these guys can’t build they can only destroy. How many of them u see flourishing in the western world.
Hausa fulani hmmmmm. You are right. They want power yet they lack commonsense. Bye to Nigeria football. Thie present NFF is a waste and they just came in so they still have 4 years to run the affairs more failure to come
Let even NFF perform a serious assessment of their achievement in the last three years and come out tell us what they have been able to achieve.
You guys should watch it cause even se might not qualify for afcon after all.
That body called NFF stinks with corruption. Their situation is beyond redeemable, RIP Nigerian football as some ppl use to say it here.
That Yam head called Amaju Picknic 2 term presidency destroyed our football…. period…
Our failure at this level can be traced back to 2015 when we were last successful at both under 17s and 20s respectively.
Since then it has been a downward spiral,the supply channel for the under23s was poor hence the collapse at this level.
Yusuf tried to build from the league but players dishonesty with age and late preparations halted any progress this mission could have achieved,sadly so.
The nff waited until two weeks for the Guinea game to commence preparations which made it difficult for Salisu to replace the players that was discovered to have double passports hence the reliance or the impromptu calls ups of strange foreign based professionals.
Though these players aren’t strange to Salisu I believe they were successful players in the league who were desperate for foreign contracts and found themselves in strange or lower leagues clubs in Europe.
Not making excuses for the coaching crew sometimes factors other than corruption may lead to unsuccessful campaigns it’s just stereotyping to always use corruption as a face cover for failure whereas so many factors like I just mentioned above or sometimes lack of talents at a particular season it happens,take for instance Argentina did not qualify for this years under 20 men’s football competition that’s an example from a country with the most success at this level.
I doubt Salisu would engage in corrupt practices after serving suspensions most recently.
He knows if caught would end his career as a coach and that would also damage his integrity for good.I doubt he did any bad in that regards as wildly believed.It’s important to analyse situations properly before posting,meanwhile,where a coach comes from doesn’t matter,we have had successful coaches from the north.Salisu,Bosso are both good coaches,the system makes it hard for coaches to thrive.It’s easy to type and send criticisms but the job itself is primed for failure due to administrative issues prevalent in the system.
When we see danger at first we act ignorant until we’re faced with the sad reality of failure then we come out in numbers to air our disappointments.I raised an alarm about the time Salisu was asked to open camp for this game then no one even bothered,you think two weeks of preparations is enough to raise a team to beat a side like Guinea well you may have another think coming.
The nff planned to fail,I will exonerate Salisu of blame he did his best within the short time given to prepare a team probably to cut costs,that’s what you get when you want to be tight.
Hopefully,we learn our lessons and start preparations in earnest for future engagements.
I stopped reading when you said ‘Salisu and Bosso are both good coaches’. Good coaches because they have built their reputation on corrupt intent – giving underserving players spots on the roster (pay to play) as well as using overaged cheats to win.
Truth is both are USELESS coaches and that is why Salisu failed – he initially invited players who forged their ages and they got caught. He had no backup plan and that is why he lost to Guinea. Bosso is exactly the same. He has been cheating from time. Most, if not all the boys he paraded in U20 are overaged.
Both men are bloody useless and corrupt.
Do you have evidence to back up your claims?
That’s not correct, Salisu is not a good coach period. He is here in Nigeria and can’t assemble good & truly under 23 players that 16 of his 30 man list were over age common I know the other factors you mentioned contributed but Salisu is not it at all.
Salisu yusuf was caught red handed taking bribe and was banned after serving out his ban our incompetent nff employed him again to start from where he stopped, seeing that team play in Abuja in the 1st leg I just know that we are doomed..the nff president after bribing his to get the job he is still recouping his money and our football is dying.
Enough Said….what more is there to say? Bad administration,poor planning, terrible logistics arrangement, tactical errors and unprofessional players! We’ve said it all btw Ghana have qualified for theirs so… enough Said.
Where is Amaju Pinnick
Where is Sunday Dare the ex clueless and incompetent sport minister
Where is segun odegbami and other clueless 1994 set of talkative footballers
Where are the clueless and sentimental fans like Jimmyball, Omo9ja, Ugo iwunze, christian ministries, etc.
I thought they said sacking ROHR was to avoid calamity on super eagles and our football. But what is happening today? Calamity upon calamity, failure upon failure. From Super eagles to the least team is now rubbish. If we manage to qualify for Afcon, we will not pass round of 16 with this coach in charge and qualifying for world cup will be a tall dream if we are paired with other quality teams in Africa far better and organize than us. Corruption, wickedness to coaches and players, nepotism have destroyed the only thing that give the masses Joy.
ROHR is 100% better than all the coaches handling our national team currently. It will take Nigeria another two years if not more to wake up from the calamity of sacking Rohr, if we continue like this.
@Marvelous Sunday I have always maintained that As long as Ahmed Musa remains captain of this team and we have ABOKI’S running this country the country will see no good. Did I not post a post where a profit stated that As long as Musa does not step down and justice is not met in this squad his mere presence will present an aura of Bad luck in this national team. You think I am joking una go see am for yourself. I repeat as long as decisions like keeping Ahmed Musa and unjustly carrying to the most caps of any Nigerian player a player, not worthy of that mantle Nigeria’s football will continually be met with failure You think I am lying mark it somehwere
Ugo Iwunze your mumu go last. Ahmed Musa is now your problem after you, Jimmy ball, segun odegbami, omo9ja, Christian ministries senselessly contributed to sacking of Rohr. This is just the beginning of the disaster awaiting you
LMFAO..
MUMU is an UNDERSTATEMENT
@UGO IWUNZE is a FUFU
Side stepping here. This failure is by Olympic eagles sir