Posted by By Tana Aiyejina on
The home-based Super Eagles on Sunday crashed out of the race to the maiden African Nations Cup Championship following a goalless draw with bitter rivals Ghana at the U.J Esuene Stadium in Calabar, Cross River State.
The home-based Super Eagles on Sunday crashed out of the race to the maiden African Nations Cup Championship following a goalless draw with bitter rivals Ghana at the U.J Esuene Stadium in Calabar, Cross River State.
The competition for players featuring in the domestic leagues of their countries is scheduled to take place in Cote d'Ivoire in March 2009.
The Nigerian side needed at least a lone goal victory, to book its ticket to the event, having lost the first leg in Accra 3-2 but Kabiru Musa and other strikers missed begging opportunities.
Coach Okey Emordi introduced new players to the team that lost in Accra with the likes of Chibuzor Okonkwo and Stephen Worgu starting the game as Nigeria aimed for a home victory but the team failed to impress, leaving Ghana to advance to the competition on 3-2 aggregate.
After sustaining the pressure for most parts of the game, the Ghanaians capitalised on fast breaks to wreak havoc on the Nigerian defence but the defenders rose to the challenge.
On Wednesday the Nigeria Football Federation drafted former Eagles coach, Adegboye Onigbinde, and Golden Eaglets coach, Henry Nwosu, to the technical crew to assist Emordi but the effort failed to yield result.
In another CHAN qualifier, Senegal advanced to the tournament after beating Guinea 3-1 on penalties after both teams were tied on 1-1 over two legs.