Morocco 2023: Olympic Eagles fails to qualify for U-23 AFCON finals
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Nigeria’s Olympic Eagles have come short of making it to this year’s U-23 Africa Cup of Nations after losing 2-0 to Guinea in the second leg of their final qualifying fixture in Rabat, Morocco on Tuesday.
After a 0-0 draw in the first leg in Abuja on Wednesday last week, the Eagles had the opportunity of more training sessions together to take the game to the Guineans on neutral ground, as Guinea does not have an approved venue in their country to host international football.
Both teams fought hard on the turf of the Prince Heritier Moulay Al Hassan for one hour, before Guinea took the lead, then added a second goal 15 minutes later to the consternation of the Nigeria squad and head coach Salisu Yusuf.
Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow, for a team that emerged champions of the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations in Senegal in 2015 and reached the finals staged in Egypt four years ago.
